McLaren’s hopes of defending its Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship are fading rapidly, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri enduring another disappointing qualifying session at the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix. While the British driver managed to salvage sixth place, his Australian team-mate failed to progress beyond Q2, highlighting the increasingly serious difficulties facing the reigning champions.
It is a situation that would have seemed almost unimaginable following McLaren’s success last season. Yet the MCL40 has gradually turned what should have been another championship challenge into a frustrating campaign, with only occasional signs of the competitiveness that once made the Woking team the benchmark. During the middle part of the season, Lando Norris’s victories briefly suggested that McLaren might return to the front, but that improvement has proved impossible to sustain.
McLaren’s Mexico GP qualifying exposes MCL40’s unpredictable behaviour
Qualifying at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez provided another example of McLaren’s difficult 2026 season. Lando Norris could manage only sixth position despite setting the fastest time in Q2, a performance that had briefly raised hopes of challenging for pole position. Oscar Piastri endured an even more disappointing session, suffering elimination in Q2 after struggling to find confidence and consistency in the car.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella made no attempt to hide the team’s shortcomings, once again pointing to the unpredictable behaviour of the MCL40 as the fundamental problem.
“Sometimes, when the drivers try to push a little harder because they feel they have grip, suddenly the grip disappears. It’s really strange behaviour, which makes their lives very difficult,” Andrea Stella explained.
The issue has affected McLaren practically since the beginning of the championship and, according to the Italian team principal, becomes particularly evident when track conditions grow more challenging. These sudden changes in car behaviour undermined Oscar Piastri’s performance in Q2 before also affecting Lando Norris in the final qualifying segment.
“It’s a responsibility that we have to take as a team. We have to work and improve the car,” Andrea Stella admitted.
The latest setback adds to the concerns surrounding McLaren’s ongoing performance difficulties following the United States Grand Prix, where the team’s drivers had already highlighted problems with their competitiveness.
Lando Norris admits frustration despite securing sixth place
Although Lando Norris managed to extract a respectable qualifying result from the MCL40, the British driver made it clear that his impressive Q2 performance did not reflect the car’s consistent potential. Despite his frustration, he remained satisfied with his own contribution.
“My lap in Q2 was incredible, but it was very unrealistic to think I could repeat it in Q3. I’m happy with the job I’ve done with the car I have available,” Lando Norris explained.
His assessment of Sunday’s race was even more revealing, underlining just how difficult he finds it to predict the McLaren’s behaviour from one session to the next.
“This car is incredibly difficult to drive. I don’t know whether tomorrow will be a good day or a bad day. I think overtaking will be almost impossible,” he admitted.
Those are particularly concerning words from a driver who, only a few months ago, appeared to have rediscovered the confidence needed to lead McLaren towards a potential recovery. His ability to produce competitive individual performances remains evident, but the car’s lack of consistency continues to limit what he can achieve.
Oscar Piastri’s qualifying struggles raise concerns at McLaren
If Lando Norris is still managing to extract occasional strong performances from the MCL40, Oscar Piastri’s situation appears considerably more worrying. In Mexico, the Australian looked increasingly uncomfortable behind the wheel, struggling to understand a car whose behaviour seemed to change between successive runs.
“In Q1, we had quite a lot of margin. Then, with the new tyres, I improved very little. I don’t know what changed, but I had absolutely no grip,” Oscar Piastri explained after his elimination.
Andrea Stella defended McLaren’s Q2 strategy, insisting that the pace demonstrated up to that point should have allowed the Australian to progress without major difficulties. Nevertheless, Oscar Piastri was once again unable to recover when circumstances became more complicated.
The result reinforces the broader concerns about McLaren’s recent decline in the Constructors’ Championship battle. The Woking team has struggled to rediscover the consistency that characterised its previous title-winning campaign, leaving both drivers facing an increasingly difficult task.
The difference between the two team-mates was particularly striking in Mexico. Lando Norris produced a lap strong enough to top Q2, while Oscar Piastri was unable to find the improvement needed to reach Q3, despite the same fundamental car limitations affecting both drivers.
Have Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri reversed their roles?
There is also a broader question surrounding Oscar Piastri’s recent performances, particularly when compared with the reputation he established during the previous season. For much of last year, the Australian was portrayed as Formula 1’s ‘Iceman’: a calm, methodical driver supposedly more mentally resilient than Lando Norris, who was frequently described as emotional and vulnerable under pressure.
Now, somewhat paradoxically, those perceptions appear to have been reversed. Lando Norris continues to find ways of extracting performances from a difficult car, while Oscar Piastri seems less confident, less decisive and increasingly unable to respond effectively when things go wrong.
It is possible that his difficulties extend beyond the technical limitations of the MCL40. Some unconfirmed reports have suggested that the Australian may have decided to work with a mental performance coach, something that would be neither unusual nor inherently concerning for a Formula 1 driver.
What is striking, however, is that questions are now being raised about the psychological resilience of the same driver who, only a few months ago, was widely regarded as one of the most unflappable competitors on the grid.
That interpretation deserves caution. Assessing a Formula 1 driver’s mental strength on the basis of a handful of races, mistakes or disappointing results risks oversimplifying a far more complex picture. The same applies to the earlier tendency to portray Lando Norris as psychologically fragile while treating Oscar Piastri as virtually immune to pressure.
A more meaningful assessment requires a longer-term, analytical perspective rather than conclusions drawn from recent performances alone. In Formula 1, neither a driver’s ability nor their mental resilience should be judged exclusively by their latest races.
For McLaren, the immediate challenge remains finding a way to make the MCL40 more predictable and competitive. Until that happens, both drivers will continue to face difficulties, regardless of how differently they respond to the car’s limitations.
Related McLaren and Formula 1 news
- 2026 Formula 1 driver standings and championship positions
- 2026 Mexico GP qualifying results and provisional starting grid
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