Lando Norris has expressed doubt over whether McLaren's fresh aerodynamic components will address the fundamental handling issues plaguing the MCL40 ahead of this weekend's Sao Paulo Grand Prix. According to Sky Sports, the British driver remains sceptical that the new front wing, rear wing and floor components will solve the car's underlying difficulties, even as the team bids to defend third place in the Constructors' Championship.
The Woking outfit has fallen away from contention in recent weeks, a decline Norris attributes to being outpaced in development by Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari. Sky Sports reported that Norris spoke candidly about the upgrades following last weekend's Mexican Grand Prix.
They are just to add performance. I don't think it will make it any easier to drive. Maybe there's a chance it makes it harder. For this you always leave it to the experts. I give my feedback, I say what I want, what's difficult. The engineers and aerodynamicists are the clever ones who turn my comments into lap time. They are doing a good job and continuing to work hard.
Norris's pessimism stems from the car's persistent handling characteristics throughout the season. He described the MCL40 as having
been horrible, difficult to drive the whole season, though he acknowledged that other teams have introduced substantially more upgrades and made greater performance gains since Baku in September, when McLaren last brought significant updates to the grid.
The 24-year-old sits sixth in the Drivers' Championship and has won just two races this season—back-to-back victories in Budapest and Zandvoort either side of the summer break. He should have claimed a third win at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid, but an untimely Virtual Safety Car cost him that opportunity. Despite these setbacks, Norris has attempted to reframe the season in a more positive light.
The car has got better every time we brought upgrades, but just other teams have brought a lot more upgrades since and improved a lot more than what we have—nothing more than that.
Norris stressed that McLaren's achievement should not be underestimated given their starting position. The team began the year significantly off the pace of their rivals and have managed to claw back substantial ground through a combination of driver performance and incremental improvements.
The team are still doing a good job, considering we were 1.5 to one second off at the beginning of the year. The fact we won almost three races was a pretty sizeable achievement in itself, so we have had a pretty good year, if you want to look at it from that perspective.
He continued by emphasising that while McLaren holds itself to exacting standards, the progress made warrants recognition.
Of course we hold ourselves to a very high level and want to win everything we can. We started a long way behind at the beginning of the season and did a good job to catch up, better than the majority of any other team on the grid.
Norris acknowledged a shift in his perspective on the campaign.
Normally it's me looking at it from a negative way, but now I'm looking at it from a positive way. We want more, especially when we had a taste of success in the middle of the year.
Defending the title and the 2026 regulations challenge
McLaren's struggles this season have been compounded by the decision to allocate significant resources to defending their Constructors' Championship last year, a choice that left them less prepared for the new 2026 regulations than some competitors. The team will lose their back-to-back titles this weekend if Mercedes outscore Ferrari by at least three points on Sunday, ending their two-year reign at the top of the standings.
Norris rejected suggestions that this season represents a failure for the team.
I certainly wouldn't put this year at all in the direction of saying it's a failure. I think that's completely the wrong mindset to have, especially when we had to work so much on last year to win a world championship.
We knew we were going to pay the price, especially when you've got a bigger regulation change than ever in Formula 1. When you want to be able to drop everything and spend more time on something, it was a time we couldn't do that, because we had a Constructors and Drivers' Championship to win, so I'm more than happy that that was the sacrifice we took this year.
The 24-year-old also highlighted the additional disadvantage McLaren faced as a customer team to Mercedes. The complexity of the new power units meant that engine manufacturers with their own programmes—Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari—gained an inherent advantage over customer teams reliant on external suppliers.
The first races were very tough. As a customer team to Mercedes, that obviously made things much tougher, so even if we had the same car, they would have beaten us. You've got all these little things that add up to make it a tougher season than ideal.
Norris emphasised that the team's ability to win races despite these structural disadvantages should be viewed as a significant achievement.
I think what made it tough was the fact we won races this season, which already I thought was a huge achievement in itself, to go from where we were at the beginning of the season to winning two, almost three races. I see that as a pretty huge success from where we were.
However, he acknowledged the frustration of recent form.
What's hurt is the fact we've kind of drifted away from that, and more just other teams have brought big upgrades and improved in better ways than what we have over the last couple of months.
Brazil preparations and the road ahead
McLaren have been planning the Brazil upgrades for some time. The team announced in late October that they were targeting further upgrades for Brazil and Las Vegas after struggling to compete at the front in recent races, with Mexico City seeing only minor changes to the MCL40.
According to McLaren's official preview, the team expects to carry the concept of the new front wing into next year's car, while using the Brazil updates to build momentum for 2027. Reserve driver Leo Fornaroli will drive the MCL40 in Friday's first practice session, replacing Oscar Piastri for his final mandated rookie outing of the year.
Norris arrives in Brazil on the back of a strong record at the venue. He won the 2025 São Paulo Grand Prix from pole position, extending his championship lead over teammate Oscar Piastri to 24 points with three races remaining. That victory was particularly significant for McLaren, as the team's 2025 São Paulo win marked the team's 100th Formula 1 victory.
The Sao Paulo Grand Prix is scheduled for Sunday, 8 November at 14:00 local time, with qualifying taking place on Saturday, 7 November at 15:00 local time. The weekend represents the final leg of a triple-header and offers McLaren one last opportunity to demonstrate that their upgrades can deliver meaningful performance gains before the season concludes in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi.
