McLaren drops to fourth-best over three Formula 1 races
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 13, 2026
McLaren slump
McLaren has fallen from race-winning pace to clearly fourth-best over three Formula 1 races, and the slide has put its hold on third in the constructors’ championship at risk. The team scored just 33 points across Azerbaijan, Malaysia and Singapore, a stretch that exposed a sharp drop from the form it carried earlier in the season. In Singapore, Lando Norris finished fourth and Oscar Piastri was fifth, results that fit the broader trend. Norris said McLaren was clearly the fourth-fastest team there, and both drivers said the team still lacked the pace shown by Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari. The picture was worse because McLaren was not only slower than its main rivals, it also gave away ground through circumstances, driver mistakes, poor tire calls and questionable strategy. A fuel-system issue for Norris added to the damage, and the team now faces a fight to protect its place behind the front-runners. Red Bull has closed enough to make third look vulnerable if McLaren cannot reverse the slide quickly. The gap has turned what looked like a steady campaign into a nervous run of races, with little margin left for more costly weekends.
Norris Piastri
Norris and Piastri both sounded blunt about where McLaren stands. Norris said the car is too difficult to drive and a long way off, a frank assessment that matched the way his race unfolded in Singapore. He apologized after admitting impatience in battles with Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli, a sign that the car’s shortcomings have also pushed him into tougher moments on track. Piastri had his own fight through the field after a slow puncture, then passed Hamilton on the penultimate lap to salvage fifth. Even with that recovery, he said McLaren is not quick enough and needs a significant step forward to fight for podiums and wins. The drivers’ comments pointed to the same problem from different angles. McLaren is losing time before the race even settles into a rhythm, then giving away more through tire and strategy issues. The team’s recent run has made that harder to hide. In the same races that produced the points total, McLaren also failed to match the straight-line speed, corner speed and clean execution of the teams setting the pace. That combination has left the drivers trying to squeeze more from a package that is not delivering enough.
Stella upgrade
Andrea Stella said McLaren needs something more fundamental than added downforce. That is a clear sign the team sees the problem as deeper than a simple setup fix or a small aerodynamic gain. Stella said the car is weak in low-speed corners, on corner entry and on the straights, three areas that cover much of a lap and leave little room to recover time elsewhere. Those comments line up with the results in Azerbaijan, Malaysia and Singapore, where McLaren slipped behind the benchmark set by its closest rivals. The team expects an aerodynamic upgrade at the Austin Grand Prix, and it is planning further updates for 2026. A deeper fix is targeted for the 2027 MCL41, which suggests McLaren is already looking beyond short-term patches. That approach fits the scale of the setback. A car that loses ground in different phases of the lap needs more than a single part or a one-race solution. McLaren’s recent struggles have come from more than raw speed alone, but the speed deficit is now the central issue. The team has to solve the underlying weakness if it wants to get back into the battle for podiums and wins, and it has to do it while holding off Red Bull in the championship chase.
