The United States Grand Prix showed that McLaren isn’t quite ready to compete for the F1 World Championship. Zak Brown and Andrea Stella have made progress in many areas, but there’s still a lot of work to do before they can challenge Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing.
Luckily for McLaren, Sergio Perez from Red Bull is far behind Verstappen. This means McLaren might have a shot at the Constructors’ Championship since both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris can score big points regularly. But Ferrari’s recent performance could make things interesting until the final race in Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, in the Drivers’ Championship, Norris was let down by his team once more.
Ignoring the Obvious
Norris admits he’s not perfect, but with a few changes from his team, he could have been within 57 points of Verstappen in the World Championship. During the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, it was clear Norris needed every point possible, yet McLaren made him give up a win, wasting seven valuable points.
At Monza’s Italian Grand Prix, Norris started from pole position but had to back off as Piastri pushed through aggressively. This move cost McLaren points in the Constructors’ Championship. A simple “hold stations” call from Stella would have been wise. Another nine points lost! The gap could’ve been reduced to 41 points with just these two incidents.
Things might have turned out differently in these scenarios, but McLaren often ignored obvious problems, hoping they’d magically resolve themselves. The biggest example was during the United States Grand Prix.
Some say Norris should’ve realized he wasn’t ahead at turn 12’s apex. Still, it’s okay to double-check with the team who has video footage. It was crystal clear on replay—no debate needed. “Losing the battle but winning the war” comes to mind here. Norris should’ve given back that spot; any other belief shows they either crumbled under pressure or don’t understand F1 rules well enough. Not great for a team aiming for World Championships!
Fans might think this is a missed opportunity for McLaren.
McLaren will learn and grow from these experiences; they’ve done it before. They quickly grasped strategy issues in Canada with the safety car situation. However, if Red Bull were running McLaren’s pit wall, they likely would’ve had Norris much closer to Verstappen in points—or even leading him!
What do you think? Can McLaren catch up next season?