Norris admits McLaren has fallen to fourth-fastest team after COTA fifth-place finish

Reigning Formula 1 champion Lando Norris admitted McLaren has slipped to the fourth-fastest team on the grid after finishing fifth at the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, trailing Kimi Antonelli, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Team-mate Oscar Piastri crossed the line two places further back in seventh, a stark contrast to the form that carried McLaren to title contention less than a year ago.

When asked directly whether McLaren was now the fourth-quickest car, Norris did not hesitate. “Yeah, I think it’s pretty obvious,” he said. The Briton pointed to persistent weaknesses in slow-speed corners as the core of the team’s problems, noting that rival teams — Ferrari included — have continued to extract gains from their own upgrades while McLaren’s developments have not addressed its key deficit.

“We need a lot more rear and slow speed,” Norris explained. “It’s been our issue for a long time now. It seems to be very hard to tackle.”

Despite the lack of outright pace, Norris said the team’s upgrades are technically functioning as intended — they simply are not delivering in the areas McLaren needs most. “Things are all working as they should, but just not really in all the places that we need them to.”

With no realistic chance of fighting at the front on raw pace, McLaren opted for a one-stop strategy, banking on a virtual safety car or safety car to bring Norris into contention for a podium. The gamble left him on ageing hard tyres in the closing laps, where he held off Verstappen for several laps before the Red Bull driver, running fresher rubber after two stops, found a way through.

“Inevitably as soon as he had Overtake mode and I had to use Boost mode to defend, he was going to come past quite easily,” Norris said. “As soon as I then have traffic on old tyres, it’s kind of game over.”

Norris also confirmed McLaren swapped its drivers during the race, with the team prioritising him after he had been “a lot quicker all weekend” than Piastri, describing the call as “just the obvious thing to do.”

The result carries significant consequences in the constructors’ championship. McLaren arrived in Austin seven points ahead of Red Bull in the battle for third place, a fight that now looks considerably more precarious given the pace deficit Norris has publicly acknowledged.