Norris: McLaren 'not in a great place' after tough Monza Friday

Reigning world champion Lando Norris has found few reasons to believe he can deliver a hat-trick of Formula 1 wins at this weekend's Italian Grand Prix, after a difficult opening day at Monza's Temple of Speed.

Norris claimed fourth in Friday's second practice session, 0.384s behind Mercedes' George Russell, as he sounded surprised by McLaren's relative lack of pace compared to the works team.

Why it matters:

Norris arrives at Monza riding back-to-back victories in Hungary and the Netherlands, but McLaren's struggles at the high-speed circuit could blunt his momentum. A third straight win would be a major statement in the championship fight, yet the MCL40 currently looks a step off the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari.

The details:

• "Not very decent, just struggling a lot more with pace," Norris admitted. "In the corners we expected to be good at, we're bad. And the corners we expected to be bad at, we're not so bad at, but we're still off. So, we're not in a great place at the minute."
• GPS traces show Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri, who took sixth, are mainly losing time on the straights compared to Russell — a combination of the MCL40's relative lack of aerodynamic efficiency and a different battery deployment profile.
• Norris is also losing almost a tenth of a second in the fast Variante Ascari chicane, which would naturally be a strong corner for McLaren. Conversely, he matched Russell through the slow-speed first and second chicanes, not generally a strength of his 2026 car.

Between the lines:

McLaren must also contend with Ferrari, which took second in FP2 courtesy of Charles Leclerc as it fields an improved power unit and track-specific aerodynamic updates. "It's going to be tougher than before, for sure," Norris acknowledged. "It's close between a lot of the guys at the top. I definitely don't feel we're in the fight for pole at all."

What's next:

McLaren was the latest team to adopt the rotating rear wing concept pioneered by Ferrari, and technical director Neil Houldey confirmed its 'H-Wing' design worked as expected. "We're reasonably pleased with the car's balance between high- and low-speed sections, though we are around three-tenths off where we want to be," Houldey said. "Our focus this evening will be on fine-tuning the energy management, as there is still an opportunity to find lap time through better harvesting and deployment."