Reigning F1 world champion Lando Norris has thrown an intriguing twist into the early narrative of the 2026 season – insisting Ferrari, not race-winning Mercedes, may currently hold the strongest machine on the grid.
Mercedes dominated the season opener at Albert Park, with George Russell converting the Silver Arrows’ pace into a commanding victory. But Norris, watching the fight unfold from a distant fifth place, believes the true benchmark lies elsewhere.
From his vantage point, the scarlet SF-26 looked frighteningly quick – particularly through the corners.
“I think Ferrari, from what we see, quite clearly they have the best car. Their cornering speeds are unbelievable,” said the Briton.
It’s a bold claim considering Mercedes controlled the race result, but Norris’ view reflects what many observers noticed during the opening phases of the Melbourne weekend: Ferrari’s raw chassis performance was impossible to ignore.
McLaren Facing a Reality Check
While Mercedes and Ferrari fought at the front, Norris spent the race managing damage limitation – finishing 52 seconds behind Russell and 36 seconds adrift of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
For the defending champion team, the deficit came as a sobering wake-up call.
“We're nowhere near where we need to be, clearly. But probably more so from a car perspective,” Norris admitted to Sky Sports F1.
“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.”
The gap, Norris suggested, was painful to quantify.
“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.”
In other words: McLaren has a mountain to climb.
Red Bull Also Ahead
Adding insult to injury, Norris believes even Red Bull currently holds an edge over the papaya squad.
Despite starting from the back of the grid, Max Verstappen surged through the field and nearly snatched fifth place from Norris on fresher tyres in the closing laps.
“I think it was really quite clear the Red Bull was a lot quicker, just because Max came from last and almost beat us,” Norris 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.”
Still, Norris is under no illusions about the scale of the challenge ahead.
“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.
Read also: McLaren ‘puzzled’ by pace deficit to Mercedes despite shared PU“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.”
For McLaren, the message from its champion driver ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix is blunt: the title defense has barely begun – and the real pace setters might be wearing red.
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