Lando Norris has suggested that McLaren \u201cneed to improve the car quite a lot\u201d following his P5 finish in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, with the Briton admitting that he was \u201cstruggling with a lot of things\u201d during the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After team mate\u00a0Oscar Piastri\u00a0spun off the track\u00a0on his way to the grid,\u00a0Norris\u00a0was the papaya squad\u2019s sole runner in the race. Starting from P6 on the grid, the reigning World Champion kept himself within the top-10 battle but could not match the pace of the leading\u00a0Mercedes\u00a0and\u00a0Ferrari\u00a0cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite facing pressure from a chasing\u00a0Max Verstappen\u00a0in the latter stages, Norris\u00a0held onto fifth place\u00a0at the chequered flag and later admitted that his afternoon in Melbourne had been challenging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[It was] tough, of course, trying to learn on the go and understand things \u2013 difficult, not an easy thing to try and understand and to maximise,\u201d the 26-year-old explained. \u201cBut I think we learned through the race \u2013 we clearly did because at the beginning of the race we were pretty slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the end of the race we were, I think, a little bit better and a bit more competitive, but comparing to Max, comparing to the cars ahead, not even close. We have a lot of things to look into, to try and understand, and I think we have to understand the power unit more, but that\u2019s what today was for and we\u2019ll see what we can learn for next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s clear today that we also need to improve the car quite a lot \u2013 to be honest I would say it\u2019s more about the car than just the power unit, but I need to go and look at the data and understand things a little bit more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was difficult with the car and I was struggling with a lot of things. We\u2019ll look at stuff and see what we can improve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While there were difficulties for\u00a0McLaren\u00a0during the first race weekend of 2026, Norris acknowledged that there is still a chance for the squad to catch up with their rivals in the campaign ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of time,\u201d the British driver said. \u201cI guess after the last few years it just hurts a little bit more, but I\u2019m happy for\u00a0George [Russell]\u00a0\u2013 he\u2019s done a good job. Also Mercedes and Ferrari, they\u2019re doing a good job, they\u2019re doing better than we have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to learn, we need to understand quickly, but it does take time sadly \u2013 even though things are quick, it takes time and we\u2019ll do the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n