Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri strike a realistic tone as McLaren locks out third row in Austria. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris realistic after difficult Austrian GP qualifying.

Norris and Piastri admit: “P6 and P7 reflect our true pace”

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri offered a realistic assessment of McLaren’s qualifying performance at the Austrian Grand Prix, admitting that sixth and seventh place accurately reflected the true competitiveness of the MCL40. Both drivers believe they extracted everything possible from the car, which simply lacked the outright speed to challenge the front runners.

McLaren no longer has the edge

Only one year has passed, but it feels like an eternity since McLaren dominated the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix. The reigning world champions have entered Formula 1’s new technical era on the back foot compared to Mercedes and Ferrari—perhaps not entirely surprising after taking the championship battle with Max Verstappen all the way to the final race of last season—and they are now paying the price for a slower development programme.

McLaren finished qualifying at the Red Bull Ring with Lando Norris in sixth place and Oscar Piastri in seventh, a result the team considers consistent with the current level of performance of the MCL40, even if it fell short of expectations heading into the weekend. The car failed to deliver when it mattered most in Q3, where it was comfortably outpaced by Max Verstappen and both Ferrari drivers. Nevertheless, there was satisfaction within the garage after extracting virtually all of the car’s available potential.

Lando Norris remains realistic

“Overall, it was a good day. Sixth place reflects where we are at the moment,” Lando Norris said. “It’s easy to look at the practice times and hope for something more, but we know the cars ahead of us are very strong, as they’ve shown throughout the season. Realistically, this is our current position, but we have our own strengths that we’ll try to use, and we’re close enough to fight tomorrow.”

The reigning world champion also expects tyre management to play a decisive role in Sunday’s race.

“The race will take place in incredibly hot conditions, and tyre degradation will be a key factor, just as it was in Barcelona. A lot can happen with strategy and pit stops, but if we manage the race well and make the most of every opportunity, we’ll be able to achieve a good result.”