McLaren’s difficult run continued in qualifying for the United States Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri seventh and Lando Norris eighth on the grid at Austin. Both drivers finished Saturday well short of their expectations, extending a period in which the Woking team has struggled to match Formula 1’s leading contenders despite believing the MCL40 still possesses considerably more performance than its results suggest.
The most revealing aspect of qualifying at the Circuit of The Americas was the gap between the MCL40’s theoretical potential and the performance McLaren’s drivers can consistently extract from it. That discrepancy has become central to the team’s technical analysis during a period in which McLaren’s recent decline has become increasingly costly, and Andrea Stella believes it is important to distinguish between characteristics specific to the MCL40 and difficulties shared by cars built under the 2026 Formula 1 regulations.
McLaren’s Austin qualifying pace exposes its consistency problem
“If we took our best sectors and put them together, we could say we are competitive,” Andrea Stella explained. “But this year, actually exploiting the potential of a car is very difficult. We shouldn’t focus too much on the theoretical potential, but rather on what we are able to express consistently.”
It is a crucial distinction. McLaren can still produce strong speed through individual sections of a circuit, but maintaining that performance across an entire lap has proved far more difficult. That becomes particularly damaging in qualifying, where every sector has to come together cleanly in a single attempt.
Austin has provided an especially demanding test because the Circuit of The Americas combines high-speed changes of direction, long straights and slower technical corners. A detailed guide to the 2026 United States Grand Prix and COTA highlights the wide variety of demands teams have to balance around the Texas circuit.
Lando Norris: “Improve three corners and the next three become a nightmare”
Lando Norris did not hide his frustration after qualifying eighth, describing the MCL40 as the most difficult Formula 1 car he has ever driven. Despite that assessment, the British driver was convinced there was enough underlying speed in the car to achieve a dramatically better result.
“The car was very fast today, but incredibly difficult to drive. Probably the most difficult I’ve ever had in my entire life. It was competitive enough to finish second, so I should have been second and instead I’m eighth. Clearly, I did a terrible job today.”
Lando Norris explained that the challenge is not simply finding the correct balance, but maintaining that balance through the different conditions encountered over a lap. The closer he tries to move towards the car’s absolute limit, the more pronounced the problem appears to become.
“We keep improving the car and bringing upgrades, but it’s a situation we still can’t completely solve. You improve in three corners and suddenly the next three become a nightmare. Right now, it’s impossible to put together that perfect lap I want. It’s frustrating because I want to fight for pole position, and instead I have to convince myself to accept a position far away from the front. And I don’t want to do that.”
Strong and unpredictable winds complicated the session further. Lando Norris encountered particularly difficult conditions during his first Q3 attempt, when a gust caused him to lock the wheels despite braking earlier than usual. His time on the second attempt was then deleted for exceeding track limits.
Andrea Stella says the 2026 F1 regulations are also part of the problem
Andrea Stella cautioned against automatically interpreting McLaren’s difficulties as evidence of a fundamental design flaw. According to the team principal, an important part of the issue comes from the aerodynamic characteristics introduced with Formula 1’s new technical regulations.
“In 2026 there is a common trend: the cars are difficult for everyone to drive. We saw it in Q3 as well, when very few drivers managed to improve on their second attempt. Both Red Bulls had their times deleted, as did Lando. I think some characteristics of the regulations make it difficult for every team to exploit the cars.”
Andrea Stella pointed out that the aerodynamic rules were designed partly to make it easier for one car to follow another and therefore improve overtaking opportunities. Those objectives inevitably created design constraints that are not necessarily favourable to maintaining stable aerodynamic load in every phase of a lap.
“There may also be some characteristics specific to McLaren, but at the moment that isn’t clear. In any case, I don’t think this changes our development direction, which fundamentally remains to add as much downforce as possible. We know there is still a lot of potential in that respect.”
Andrea Stella also ruled out McLaren’s decision to adopt a relatively short wheelbase as the root cause of the difficulties experienced by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
McLaren upgrades continue during Formula 1’s ‘ping-pong’ development race
The Austin result is particularly significant when viewed against McLaren’s development programme. The upgrades introduced in Baku were not intended to deliver a major immediate gain in lap time, but instead provided the foundation for subsequent developments. Further changes arrived in Austin, including revisions to the front and rear brake ducts, while additional updates are planned for upcoming Grands Prix.
McLaren was one of several teams to bring new components to Texas. Ferrari, Red Bull, Audi, Alpine, Racing Bulls and Cadillac also declared changes, underlining the intensity of the development battle. A breakdown of the Formula 1 upgrade packages introduced in Austin shows how many teams are still pursuing aerodynamic gains late in the season.
Andrea Stella defended McLaren’s development work, stressing that progress always has to be judged relative to what rival teams are achieving.
“We improved the car in Baku and we improved it here as well. Looking at the grid, you see a fourth row, but if you also consider the deleted lap, the gap would have been three tenths. And without the upgrades, it would have been bigger.”
The difficulty is that McLaren’s rivals are progressing at the same time. Ferrari introduced new parts in Austin, Red Bull has benefited from particularly effective developments during recent races, and Mercedes is beginning to see the results of its own new package. Red Bull’s improvement has already been linked to two major development steps that transformed the RB22, while Mercedes continues to explore the potential of the W17 after Toto Wolff acknowledged that more performance remains available from its package.
“Internally, we call it the ping-pong season,” Andrea Stella said, “because whoever introduces upgrades manages to gain ground, but even if you do a good job, it doesn’t mean you can establish yourself ahead of everyone. I don’t think Formula 1 has ever been this competitive, with such a high development rate.”
That situation makes the competitive order extremely difficult to consolidate. Andrea Stella’s reference to a gap of around three tenths between the leading teams illustrates how little is required to move from fighting for pole position to starting from the fourth row.
“There will be more new parts coming for McLaren. We hope they will be enough to close the gap and allow us to fight for the front row again instead of the third or fourth.”
Oscar Piastri: “We tried different solutions, but they didn’t work”
Oscar Piastri also confirmed that McLaren had struggled throughout the United States Grand Prix weekend. The Australian achieved the better qualifying result of the two McLaren drivers in seventh place, but was equally disappointed with the team’s overall competitiveness.
“We definitely wanted more. Overall, it’s been a difficult weekend. The car has the potential to be fast, but it’s complicated to drive and we didn’t have the pace we needed. We tried several different solutions during free practice and qualifying, without expecting miracles, but they didn’t produce the results we wanted.”
The race nevertheless offers McLaren some reasons for optimism. Oscar Piastri believes a strong start could allow him to gain positions and, crucially, defend them using the speed available from the MCL40. Lando Norris shares that assessment, although the British driver acknowledged that McLaren remains vulnerable in the third sector, where Austin’s slower corners continue to expose one of the car’s clearest weaknesses.
Andrea Stella is also considering the strategic variables that could influence the Grand Prix. Differences in the availability of tyre compounds may create less predictable scenarios than last year, while the high number of track-limits infringements recorded during practice and qualifying suggests penalties could also become an important factor.
McLaren therefore heads into the United States Grand Prix needing not only to recover positions but also to find an answer to a question that has followed the team for several weeks. The MCL40’s theoretical speed does not appear to have disappeared, but converting that potential into consistent results has become increasingly difficult. The challenge for McLaren is now to make the performance visible in its best individual sectors available across an entire lap – and eventually across an entire race weekend.
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