Norris encouraged by Austrian Friday progress despite early setback

Credit: McLaren

The Red Bull Ring has been good to Lando Norris. Last year, he converted pole position into a controlled victory, holding off team-mate Oscar Piastri across 70 laps to take his third win of the 2025 season at a circuit that had played squarely into McLaren's hands.

Twelve months on, the reigning world champion arrived in Spielberg in a very different position — not as the man in form, but as a driver fighting to drag the MCL40 back into contention.

Norris and McLaren entered 2026 as World Champions, but have been limited to occasional podium finishes, with poor reliability costing them valuable results and points along the way. The season opener in Melbourne handed the initiative to Mercedes, and China compounded the damage when both McLarens failed to start the race due to electrical issues.

Miami offered a first flash of genuine competitiveness, with Norris securing Sprint Pole and converting it into victory, before finishing second in the Grand Prix behind Antonelli. But the rhythm that defined his 2025 title win has been absent for most of the new season. He currently sits fifth in the Drivers' Championship, 83 points adrift of leader Kimi Antonelli.

Friday in Spielberg started badly. A suspected hydraulics issue stripped Norris of meaningful running in Free Practice 1, leaving McLaren short on data at the end of the opening session.

The afternoon told a different story. Norris finished third in FP2, 0.325 seconds off Antonelli's benchmark, with Piastri splitting the Mercedes drivers in second. It was a strong recovery, and the MCL40 looked noticeably more comfortable than it had at several earlier rounds.

"An issue in Free Practice 1 put us on the back foot, but once that was resolved we started to make some progress as the sessions went on today," Norris said. "From a pace point of view, we've had a reasonable day, and we're a bit closer to the cars ahead, which is encouraging."

Technical Director of Applied Engineering Neil Houldey echoed that cautious optimism, whilst acknowledging the competitiveness of the field. "We're reasonably pleased with our progress today, although we know there's more performance to find in the car," he said.

"Lando did an excellent job to get up to speed so quickly in FP2 after the hydraulic issue cost him most of the first session, which was very encouraging to see. While we feel we have opportunities to improve overnight, we are under no illusions about the level of competition. We expect it to be incredibly tight at the front."

Antonelli topped both sessions, with George Russell ending FP2 sixth — over six-tenths adrift of his Mercedes team-mate. The gap within the Silver Arrows camp suggested the field was tighter than recent rounds had implied, and that McLaren's Friday recovery was meaningful rather than flattering.

There was, however, a subplot to McLaren's day that added a layer of frustration. An experimental rear wing — brought to Spielberg after work by the factory team — never made it onto the car. "Unfortunately, we were unable to run the experimental wing we brought to the track," Houldey said.

"The team at the factory worked tirelessly to get it here, but during final sign-off tests in the garage, it didn't perform as expected, and we weren't comfortable running it. The correct decision was to focus our track time on optimising the current package for this weekend. It's disappointing, but we will conduct more work on the component before bringing it to a future event."

Credit: Formula One

Norris, meanwhile, pointed to the circuit's history with McLaren as a reason for optimism heading into qualifying. "This track seems to suit us as we've seen in the last few years," he said, "and that's a good trend for the weekend ahead."

The priority heading into Saturday, he explained, was straightforward. "The priority now is to build a little more confidence in the car, and if we can do that, I think we can take another step forward to the leading teams."

After a season spent chasing Mercedes and managing setbacks, Norris was clear-eyed about what lay ahead. "There's work to do," he said, "but the signs are positive and we'll keep pushing to turn that into a stronger position ahead of tomorrow's Qualifying."