McLaren Racing’s Lando Norris enjoyed a solid Saturday at the 2026 F1 Chinese GP, finishing 4th in the Sprint Race and qualifying 6th for Sunday’s main race. Tomorrow, the reigning World Champion is set to line up on the third row alongside his teammate Oscar Piastri, who qualified 5th.
While McLaren appear to be the third-fastest team in Shanghai, their package has not quite been enough for the reigning Constructors’ Champions to challenge Mercedes and Ferrari for the top four spots on the grid. Speaking in the print media zone after Qualifying, Norris reflected on his day and session, saying: “I think alright, I mean it’s close between us and Ferrari.”
“Generally they’re consistently ahead of us, so I think we have to be happy that we’re close to them. It gives us a good shot at tomorrow.”
Given the circumstances, Norris believes that today’s result was the maximum he could deliver.
“Yeah, probably a little bit more running, but difficult to be consistent in our car. I think we’re both complaining of similar things as drivers, so I think we’re where we deserve to be, honestly.”
Making strides since Melbourne
The season-opener in Melbourne proved challenging for McLaren, as Norris was the only driver to finish the race. However, after securing 6th in qualifying, the Briton feels that the team has made progress since last week and emphasised that they are doing their best to return to competitiveness at the front of the field.
Norris said: “There are some things we’ve certainly done better. It’s also a much more simple track, so eliminates half the problems straight away. But we’re still losing the final few runs a good tenth and a half just down the back straight, and we don’t know why. So there are some things we still need to try and understand and figure out.”
“We’ve certainly taken a step forward and the team are doing everything they can to improve, but for a little while it will be very difficult to be ahead of a Mercedes in this kind of situation. But we’re working hard to try and at least be level with them.”
The challenge of matching Mercedes and Ferrari’s pace
Two weekends in, and Mercedes and Ferrari continue to hold the upper hand over the rest of the field. While both teams each have their strengths, Norris acknowledged that the gaps aren’t unbeatable. However, with Mercedes’ speed in the corners and their advantage in straight-line speed, he highlighted how it’s a constant challenge to balance pace between the two.
“I wouldn’t say they have much more of an advantage in their kind of running. I mean they were certainly quicker this morning, they’re quicker now. We have a better power unit than the Ferrari and that’s our advantage today, is that we just have more straight line speed.”
“But there’s still a car that drives around the corners quicker than even a Mercedes. So to keep up with them in the corners and then try to get them in the straight is difficult. So between Mercedes and them, they have different places they’re strong.”
He further noted how both Ferrari and Mercedes have better tyre management, which makes their cars easier to handle over a stint. However, Norris remains optimistic about the fight and challenge ahead.
“But we’ll see, I mean they have better tyre management, they have more grip and therefore it’s much easier for the car for the tyres that way. We have to push like hell in the corners to keep up and then we can obviously catch up in the straight. That’s kind of the wrong end of the stick, you want to be only in a race situation at times.”
“But never say never, if we can improve on some things from this morning, then we’re certainly not out in terms of racing them. But it’s still going to be great.”
“They’re just doing a very good job” — Norris on Mercedes’ dominance
Mercedes have now locked out the front row every race so far during the 2026 F1 season. When asked about whether this was due to battery deployment strategies or track evolution, Norris explained: “No, I think everywhere I improved was just in the corners, throughout the qualifying.”
“Everywhere that we see the Mercedes improve was just in the corners throughout the qualifying. I don’t know what he’s looking at or what other people are looking at, they just did very good in the corners.”
“They have very good deployment and they’re on top of everything that they need to be on top of. They’re just doing a very good job, it’s as simple as that and you have to give credit to them.”
