Lando Norris believes Ferrari has the best chassis at the start of Formula 1’s new rules era in 2026, despite Mercedes’ dominant victory at the Australian Grand Prix.
The Melbourne race largely confirmed the pecking order that had emerged after pre-season testing, with Mercedes remaining the team to beat and Ferrari its closest challenger. The pace difference between the two teams appeared more pronounced in qualifying than in the race, despite the Scuderia failing to maximise its result on Sunday.
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While any early conclusions about the 2026 season will have to be confirmed at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, the early phase of the Albert Park event proved that Mercedes isn’t invincible, provided a competitive car can jump the Silver Arrows at the start.
While the second half of the race largely favoured Mercedes, the outcome was mainly decided by the strategic offset under the virtual safety car. Prior to that, the leading four cars were running together in the same group and eventual race winner George Russell never managed to get the better of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in their duel.
A very distant spectator to that battle – having finished 52 seconds behind the winner and 36 seconds adrift of the Ferraris – McLaren driver Norris offered an interesting interpretation of the competitive order based on McLaren’s deficit to its rivals.
“We’re nowhere near where we need to be, clearly. But probably more so from a car perspective,” he told Sky Sports F1.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images
“I think [the race] showed a lot more from a car that we’re a long way off, like a very, very long way off, and we have a lot of work to do. [Improving the car], this is nothing that’s going to happen overnight or in one week or two weeks’ time.
“I don’t know what the gap was, 50s? Almost a second a lap off. So, not quite like that, but you would say at least five tenths [to] six tenths a lap off. Some of that is still understanding the PU. Some of it’s just a better car.Â
“I think Ferrari, from what we see, quite clearly they have the best car. Their cornering speeds are unbelievable.”
Norris’ remarks about Ferrari’s ‘car’ are likely in reference to the SF-26 chassis, rather than the entire package. Nevertheless, he believes reigning champion McLaren has a lot of work to do to catch up to the competition.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“For us to match that is zero chance at the minute, and we have to work very hard to understand things and learn as much as we can from this part of the season because this part of the season now sets up the rest of it,” he said.
“So, the more we can learn, the more we can understand, the better we’ll be at the end of the season. But, yeah, it’s looking like it’s going to be a long one, a tough one. But I was happy with P5.”
Despite finishing fifth while fending off a late charge from Max Verstappen, who was running on fresher tyres, Norris also believes the Red Bull currently has a better car than McLaren.
“I think it was really quite clear the Red Bull was a lot quicker, just because Max came from last and almost beat us,” he said.
“So, not the best race in terms of pace, but we struggled with some things on the car at the beginning. We made some tweaks and that certainly improved things.”
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