Lando Norris hands McLaren brutal 'nowhere' verdict: 'We need a lot more'

Lando Norris has delivered a damning assessment of McLaren's upgrade package after the United States Grand Prix, declaring the team is "nowhere near the level we need to be at" in slow-speed corners.

Norris finished fifth at Circuit of the Americas, having been promoted ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri during the race. 

The Briton explained that the swap was straightforward given his pace advantage over the Australian that weekend.

Discussing being let past Piastri, Norris told select media, including RacingNews365: "Yeah, I mean, we want the best result. So, I've been a lot quicker all weekend, so it's just the obvious thing to do."

McLaren brought a new package to Austin featuring revised brakes and experimental floor modifications, the latter understood to be early evaluation work for the team's 2027 car concept.

The Woking-based squad remained fourth in the constructors' standings behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, with McLaren level on points with the Milton Keynes outfit but behind on countback.

Lando Norris outlines clear McLaren weakness

Asked whether the upgrades delivered as expected, Norris gave a detailed breakdown of where the package had, and had not, moved the needle.

"Yeah, you just hope that you put something on and it's magical, and you go a lot quicker and you're fighting for a podium all of a sudden," said Norris.

"Things are all working as they should, but other teams, Ferrari brought upgrades, and other teams are still bringing in upgrades. So, they're delivering; it's just not, I guess, just not really in all the places that we need them to."

"Like the slow-speed corners, we're just nowhere near the level we need to be at. We need a lot more, a lot more rear and slow speed.

"It's been our issue for a long time now. It seems to be very hard to tackle, but we'll keep working."

Norris's comments point to a weakness that has dogged the MCL40 across the season, with slow-speed corner rotation and rear-end stability flagged repeatedly as persistent traits in the car's characteristics. 

McLaren is expected to continue introducing further developments through the remaining rounds of the campaign, with another step planned ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.