Norris admits McLaren 'pretty shocking' despite unlikely P4 at Silverstone
Photo: Race Pictures
14:43, 06 Jul
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Henry Eccles is a freelance Formula 1 journalist for GPblog, covering breaking news, live race blogs, and features across the F1 calendar. Since joining in 2026, he has produced high-volume reporting on the sport’s biggest stories, alongside feature pieces including analysis and historical content.
McLaren's Lando Norris has said he does not know how the team achieved his P4 result at Silverstone, complaining of an "undriveable" MCL40 at the British GP. Having also achieved P3 in the Sprint, Norris was the sole points scorer on Sunday, after teammate Oscar Piastri finished P11.
It was a tough return to Silverstone for home hero and world champion Norris, with the McLaren star battling to third from P6 during a frantic Sprint race, and securing P4 after another dramatic Grand Prix that saw Kimi Antonelli drop to P16 and Max Verstappen crash out on Lap 48.
Given McLaren's inconsistently of late, a welcome haul of points from Norris, but the papaya team know they have a lot of work to do to catch the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari. Speaking to media, including GPblog, Norris reflected honestly on his race: "Everything but the result, pretty shocking.
"I don't know how we finished P4 today, honestly. But a big part of it nowadays is reliability, I don't know what happened to Kimi , and Max, and things like that. A big part of it is just not making mistakes and reliability, and we got that bit right today but the pace was pretty poor. Not a nice car to drive, one of the hardest cars I've ever driven in Formula 1. Many things we need to do better."
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Norris: We've been slow all year
Photo: Race Pictures
When asked whether McLaren's pace deficit was as a result of track conditions, with the Woking team's strong performance at Miami - where the Briton finished P2 - highlighted, a downbeat Norris replied: "We've been slow all year."
Despite pointing to a lack of upgrades relative to McLaren's rivals, 26-year-old nonetheless complained of an "undriveable" MCL40. He said: "I don't know... a lot of people didn't do a good job I guess. There's no way we can finish P2 in Miami and have a car like this today. Other people have brought a lot of upgrades and updates since, and we kind of haven't, so yeah, nothing has brought us that much performance. I don't know, the car was just undriveable."
The world champion then reflected on his weekend as a whole, with thousands of fans sitting at his now-famous 'Landostand' to cheer on the McLaren driver for the first time since his title win in 2025. Norris said: "I have an amazing grandstand, I’ve got amazing fans. So I enjoy the experience.
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"Driving is maybe the thing is I found most difficult this weekend, but still, a P4 is a good result and a P3 yesterday. It's not as good as what it could be. We all know that, everyone knows that, but it'll get better hopefully."
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Points |
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1 | MercedesMER | 179 | |
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