McLaren believes it still has performance to unlock from the MCL40 at Monza, but Lando Norris and the team’s engineers admit that challenging for Italian Grand Prix pole position will be extremely difficult based on Friday’s running. The most surprising aspect is not simply the team’s straight-line deficit: the MCL40 is behaving almost “in reverse” compared with recent races, struggling more than expected through Monza’s faster corners while performing relatively well in the slower sections.
Friday therefore confirmed some of the concerns McLaren carried into the weekend. After deserved victories in Hungary and the Netherlands on high-downforce circuits, Andrea Stella had identified Monza as an important examination of whether the MCL40 could remain competitive on a circuit with very different characteristics, where the strengths that have recently helped McLaren are not necessarily rewarded to the same extent.
Monza becomes an important test for the McLaren MCL40
For several teams, Monza represents a crossroads in the 2026 championship, not so much because of the points available – with a long season still ahead – but because the leading teams arrived in Italy with important technical questions to answer.
For Mercedes, it is one of the circuits where victory is expected to be possible even though the car has yet to receive its next major upgrades. For Ferrari, meanwhile, the Italian Grand Prix provides an ideal opportunity to assess its new engine package, alongside the Monza-specific aerodynamic work on the SF-26.
McLaren faces a different challenge. Being competitive at Monza would be an important sign that the MCL40 has developed into a genuinely complete Formula 1 car, something particularly valuable in a championship where consistency is paying dividends, as Mercedes has demonstrated during the opening part of the season.
For now, however, the weaknesses McLaren anticipated before the weekend are beginning to emerge, even if the situation is understandable given the unusual demands of the Temple of Speed.
McLaren’s new H-Wing is working as expected
McLaren’s recent upgrades have allowed the MCL40 to generate a significant amount of aerodynamic load. That was one of the main objectives for the engineers at Woking because additional downforce can often provide solutions across a broad range of circuits.
The other side of that equation is aerodynamic efficiency. It is no secret that McLaren gives something away to its rivals in this area, particularly Mercedes, and at Monza that weakness can become significant despite the progress delivered by recent upgrades.
After briefly testing the concept during Friday practice in Hungary, McLaren has given its version of the switchable rear-wing concept – known within the team as the H-Wing – its full race-weekend debut at Monza. The solution unquestionably helps reduce drag on the straights and, according to McLaren, is performing as expected.
For the moment, though, it has not been enough to transform the competitive picture. Both the drivers and engineers believe a fight for pole is unlikely after Friday ended with Lando Norris almost four tenths behind George Russell, who set the fastest time in FP2.
Lando Norris surprised by where McLaren is losing time
“Not great, we’re struggling a lot more,” Lando Norris said. “To be honest, in the corners where we expected to be good, we’re bad. And in the corners where we expected to be bad, we’re actually not too bad, but we’re still off. So at the moment we’re not in a great position. I really don’t think we’re in the fight for pole, but we need to come away with a good result.”
The reigning world champion’s comments are particularly revealing because they describe a McLaren that is effectively working “in reverse” compared with recent events – and not only because of its rear wing.
In the faster corners where the MCL40 was expected to be particularly competitive, including the two Lesmo corners, Ascari and Parabolica, the McLaren is not shining relative to Ferrari. The Italian team appears to be the benchmark in those sections, while McLaren’s performance is closer to Mercedes.
The curious part is what happens in the slower sections. These have often been areas where McLaren has lost ground at recent races, with Lando Norris previously identifying low-speed performance as a key area for improvement. At Monza, however, the MCL40 is defending itself well through corners such as the first chicane and Variante della Roggia, where its references are close to those of the leading cars.
Strong low-speed stability helps McLaren manage energy
From one perspective, that behaviour can be advantageous. A stable car in the slower sections allows the driver to avoid wasting energy through poor traction, an important consideration at Monza under the 2026 regulations. Red Bull, by comparison, has been struggling with an oversteering car that makes traction more difficult.
The problem for McLaren is that this strength is not enough to compensate for what the MCL40 is losing elsewhere. Beyond the deficit through the faster corners, the biggest issue is the time being lost on the straights.
That gap exists not only relative to Mercedes, whose straight-line performance is one of the W17’s main strengths, but also to Ferrari. Although Ferrari sacrifices some performance in the opening part of the lap, the SF-26 is extremely competitive through the section leading towards Parabolica.
McLaren has not yet managed to find the same compromise, and that is currently limiting the MCL40 despite the new rear wing. Importantly, the H-Wing itself is working in line with the team’s expectations and will remain on the car for the rest of the weekend.
McLaren searches for lap time through ride height and energy management
“We’ve seen it in the lap times. We’re four tenths from the fastest car, which isn’t exactly where we want to be,” McLaren technical director Neil Houldey explained. “At the moment, we feel we’ve got a good balance. We’ve played around a little with the ride heights to trade performance between high and low speed, and we’re in a reasonably good place there.”
The reference to ride height is significant because McLaren has experimented extensively in this area during recent weekends. There is still performance to unlock through this parameter even though the 2026 technical regulations differ considerably from those of the previous ground-effect era.
McLaren’s attention overnight will also turn to electrical energy management, which is especially important around Monza because of the limited number of heavy braking zones available for energy recovery.
“From an energy point of view, though, there’s still some work to do. I definitely think there’s some potential in terms of lap time. Some of it can come from moving the harvesting around, some from the deployment mode. The drivers might be able to find a tenth, and perhaps the engineers can extract a little something from the set-up. But realistically, I think it’s going to be difficult to fight for pole.”
McLaren still believes there is more performance to unlock
McLaren is therefore not giving up on the weekend. The team believes there is still performance available through energy deployment, car set-up and the drivers themselves, although Friday’s evidence suggests closing the entire gap to the front will be difficult.
That does not come as a complete surprise. McLaren already expected to be more defensive at Monza than at some of the other circuits in the second half of the season, particularly after the MCL40 excelled at the high-downforce Hungaroring and Zandvoort.
The bigger question is how much of Friday’s deficit can be reduced before qualifying. McLaren has continued to develop aggressively, with further upgrades also planned for Baku, but Monza is exposing characteristics that cannot be completely hidden by adding downforce alone.
In such a long championship, some circuits will inevitably suit a car better than others, as Mercedes and Ferrari have repeatedly demonstrated. For McLaren, the aim now is to extract enough from an unexpectedly behaving MCL40 to limit the damage at one of the circuits least naturally suited to its current strengths – and perhaps discover something useful about the car in the process.
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