Lando Norris and McLaren have lost significant ground in recent weeks. After three poles from four races and two wins across Budapest, Zandvoort, Monza and Madrid, they left both Baku and Sepang without a podium. Straight-line speed has become the MCL40’s chief weakness, with the car losing out under acceleration and struggling to reach its top speed. Norris said the pace lost on the straights had pushed him back two or three places in the last two qualifying sessions, with a decisive effect on his race results. At Sepang, direct rivals Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari held a clear technical edge. “We need to do a better job,” the Briton admitted.
McLaren’s technical staff are now working to establish whether the problem lies in the nature of the Sepang asphalt or in the chassis and the way airflow is distributed across the car. Norris stressed that straight-line speed carries less weight at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, home of the Singapore Grand Prix, but said the engineers still have serious work to do to extract the car’s full potential. The Briton, who took pole and victory in Singapore in 2024 and finished on the podium there in 2023 and 2025, described himself as “hopeful”. McLaren sit third in the constructors’ championship on 316 points, only 18 ahead of fourth-placed Red Bull, which makes the remaining rounds of the season all the more tense.
