Norris admits confidence at 85% as McLaren's known weakness haunts Monaco qualifying

Lando Norris will start Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix from eighth on the grid, his worst qualifying result of the 2026 season, after a session that the defending champion admitted he had already written off before it began.

Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri were both consigned to the fourth row of the grid, more than half a second adrift of Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s pole-sitting Mercedes. The result reflects a pattern that has defined McLaren’s season: a car capable of winning — Norris took the Miami sprint race from pole — but one that consistently fails to give its drivers the confidence they need to extract the final tenth.

“I didn’t have high hopes into this weekend,” Norris said after qualifying. “The car is just very difficult to drive, not very compliant, not very forgiving in any way. So my confidence level last year was 100, now it’s 85. And around Monaco, you know, you need to be at 100.”

Norris had privately expected the fourth row before the weekend began, putting him at odds with team principal Andrea Stella, who had suggested the MCL40’s relative strength in slow corners made Monaco a circuit where McLaren could perform. Norris, as the man behind the wheel, saw it differently.

“I think just a slight difference of opinion,” he said. “Obviously I’m the one driving the car, so I can tell the difficulty of extracting lap time, how difficult it was already last weekend in Montreal. That’s why I was so surprised last weekend to be as competitive as we were. Coming here is quite a — not an eye-opener, but still a slight reality check of how far off we are.”

The weekend’s problems began before qualifying. Norris’s car stopped during Friday’s second practice session, forcing McLaren to break curfew overnight to replace the wiring harness and other electrical components — the latest episode in a season already scarred by electrical failures that prevented either car from starting the Chinese Grand Prix.

In Montreal, the team trialled a new front wing but ultimately removed it for further evaluation. In Monaco, the results of that evaluation remained inconclusive: Piastri reverted to the previous specification ahead of qualifying, finishing just over a tenth clear of Norris — a gap that could be explained by Norris exceeding the limit on his fastest lap rather than any clear advantage from the older wing.

The underlying issue — a lack of front-end feel that prevents drivers from committing fully — echoes a problem Norris faced early in 2025, when he said he wasn’t “clicking” with the car. That was eventually resolved through a change in front suspension geometry. Whether a similar fix is available for the MCL40 remains unclear, but with the championship already slipping away, the pressure to find answers is mounting.