McLaren arrived at Monza with momentum, but left with a rather uncomfortable reality check. After victories in Hungary and the Netherlands, Lando Norris found himself staring up at a Mercedes outfit that, on this evidence, remains beyond McLaren’s reach.
Kimi Antonelli’s breakthrough victory, backed by George Russell in second, exposed a performance gap Norris could not disguise.
He and Oscar Piastri could manage only fourth and fifth, finishing around 19 seconds adrift of the Mercedes winner.
Norris conceded that Red Bull also had the advantage around Monza, but it was Mercedes’ superiority that appeared to concern him most.
“We’ve seen in past races that the Red Bull can be very fast on these types of circuits, with good top speeds and stuff, and that was again proven,” said the reigning world champion.
“They were better than us. But it was clear that Mercedes are still in a league of their own compared to us.
“You know, we won by bigger margins over the last few races, and they were still fighting for good points at those times. We were not even close to fighting for a top two.”
The blunt assessment underlined how dramatically the competitive picture can shift from one circuit to another. McLaren may have dominated recent weekends, but Monza stripped away much of that confidence.
Norris knows where McLaren is falling short
There was little mystery behind the result, either. Norris said McLaren had expected to struggle and now knows precisely where the car needs improvement.
“Just frustrating, but we said it before the weekend. We’ve seen what our expectations are, and we still have work to do, which we knew,” he added.
“So it’s not a surprise. We just need to work on the slow- and medium-speed corners, the stability of the car, which is just not good enough, and some straight-line speed.
“If we can sort that, then that’s a lot of stuff sorted.”
For a championship contender, however, “a lot of stuff” is precisely the problem. McLaren has the pace to win, but Monza showed that Mercedes currently has a more complete package – and Norris knows his team cannot afford to stand still.
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