Lost Lando Norris facing ‘uncomfortable situation’ at McLaren

Lando Norris is facing an “uncomfortable situation” as he struggles with McLaren’s 2025 F1 car, his team boss has admitted.

The Briton maintained his early lead in the F1 world championship by recovering to third in the Bahrain Grand Prix after fumbling his qualifying lap and ending up a disappointing sixth on the grid.

McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri took pole and claimed a dominant second victory of the season to cut the gap to Norris down to just three points after four rounds.

Norris revealed after Sunday’s race that “something isn’t clicking” between himself and McLaren’s MCL39 challenger.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has been impressed by how Norris is handling the - as he labeled it - “uncomfortable situation”.

"There is something important here, which is something I admire in Lando, and makes me very privileged and lucky as a team principal, that he tends to absorb and point the blame on himself,” Stella said.

"Like yesterday, Q3, he didn't put the lap together, he raises his hand. Offloading entirely the team from like: 'You guys, not your problem, it was me.’

"We know that we have made some changes to the car, which made Lando's life a bit more difficult.

"We know technically what this is. Lando is adapting to this. Somehow potentially it might have played a bit more on Oscar's end, and we are working together to fix it.”

Stella added: "I've seen various multiple world champions. I have not seen any of them that, when there is a situation whereby you would like to do something with the car but the car doesn't do exactly what you would like, they are completely comfortable.

"It is an uncomfortable situation, but the way Lando is navigating through this situation, from a substantial point of view, is the same as other champions that I've seen in the past."

Lando Norris searching for answers

After an uncharacteristically scrappy weekend, Norris conceded he doesn’t have the answers for his current troubles and lack of confidence behind the wheel of the 2025 McLaren.

"I wish I knew the answer. I don't have an answer, honestly,” he said.

"When you're an athlete, when you're a driver, you just know when things click, when you feel confident, when you feel comfortable.

"I'm confident that I have everything I need and I've got what it takes. I have no doubt about that - that I'm good enough, and all of those things.

"But something's just not clicking with me and the car. I'm not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season.

"Then, I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car, how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car.

"This year, I could not have felt more opposite so far. Even in Australia, whether or not I won the race, I never felt comfortable, never felt confident.”

Norris, who cut a dejected figure at times over the weekend, acknowledged he has a tendency to be hard on himself.

"The thing is, I think it would be even harder for me to not show any of these things," he said. "When I do my interviews a lot of it is probably just getting my frustration out.

"It’s because of my desire to do well and my ambition to win. When I know what I can do and what I’m capable of, and I’m not even close to reaching that – like Saturday – I’m very disappointed in myself. That’s just the way I am.

“But I don’t think it necessarily has a bad impact. I’ve done it so much my whole life, I’ve learned how to block my own comments away from my thoughts. Maybe sometimes I lack a bit of self-belief, and I have done in the past.

“But this is just also me. It’s the way I do things, it’s the way I work, it’s what has made me as good as I am, and probably maybe at times has limited me from becoming a better driver."