McLaren plans to bring more improvements to the car in the remaining rounds of the 2026 Formula 1 season after struggling to compete at the front in recent races.
Since Lando Norris missed out on victory in Madrid last month, McLaren have failed to finish on the podium in the last four races, despite bringing new parts to the car in that period.
After qualifying eighth at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, Norris described the MCL40 as “the hardest car I’ve ever driven in my life”.
Norris ran second late in the race adopting an alternate one-stop strategy, but was overtaken late on by Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton as he dropped to fifth, while Oscar Piastri finished seventh.
“There will be a few more things,” team principal Andrea Stella said of McLaren’s improvement plans, as most teams are now focusing on designing their 2027 cars.
“I think ultimately we’ll only be able to do that in Brazil and Vegas. So Mexico won’t have much, but Brazil and Vegas will have some improvements.
“Hopefully this will help us to be consistent in the fight for podiums and hopefully start to rely on the level of competition required to fight for victory. So there are some improvements that are still in the works.”
McLaren confirmed in their press release ahead of this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix that the team “remains committed to learning, developing and getting the most out of the MCL40 at every opportunity”.
“Following the successful introduction of changes to the front and rear corners of the MCL40 in Austin, the car will remain essentially unchanged going into this weekend’s race,” they added.
“This will therefore see only a small selection of parts delivered to follow in Mexico City through the team’s development pathway with further developments in the pipeline for the remaining rounds of the 2026 season, starting with the race in Sao Paulo.”
Norris points to qualification as a weakness
Norris has won three pole positions this year in Budapest, Zandvoort and Madrid, but his biggest gap to second place in those qualifying sessions was 0.102s.
The car seems to have been on a knife edge all season, which Piastri has struggled with the most, and Norris says slow-speed cornering has also been a problem for the team.
“There were a lot of races where we excelled and did a really good job. Qualifying we struggled,” Norris said. Sky Sports F1.
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Norris admits he did a ‘terrible job’ during Austin qualifying and that the McLaren is the ‘hardest car’ he has ever driven.
“We know roughly where we need to improve the car. I think in Austin it was clear that the slow corners we were losing almost three-tenths a lap, every single lap. That’s a lot of lap time to lose so consistently.
“We need to improve in certain areas. If we can do that, I’m very confident we can have some good results, but it seems to be a challenging area for us to improve as much as we want.
“We will continue to work hard. The team is doing a very good job and we will continue to try to pick.”
Sky Sports F1 Mexico City GP live schedule
Thursday 29 October
20:00: Drivers’ press conference
11.00pm: Paddock uncut
Friday, October 30
18:00: First practice of the Mexican Grand Prix (session starts at 18:30)*
20:00: F1 show
21:00: Press conference of the team bosses
21:30: Second Practice of the Mexican Grand Prix (session starts at 22:00)*
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Check out some of the most dramatic moments that happened at the Mexico City Grand Prix
Saturday, October 31
17:15: Third Practice of the Mexican Grand Prix (session starts at 18:30)
20:00: Mexican Grand Prix qualifying preparation
21:00: MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING
11:00 p.m.: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday 1 November
17:00: Race 3 of the F1 Academy
18:30: Grand Prix Sunday: Mexico City GP Preparation
20:00: MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Checkered flag: Mexico City GP reaction
11:00 p.m.: Teddy’s Notebook
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 heads south for the second leg of the Americas triple with the Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
