Mercedes has dominated the 2026 Formula 1 campaign, but Lando Norris reckons Ferrari would “embarrass” the competition if it had a stronger engine.
The Silver Arrows won the opening six grands prix of the season through George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, but Barcelona saw Lewis Hamilton end that streak by winning for Ferrari.
Hamilton had already been close to victory with consecutive runner-up finishes until the Scuderia brought a heavily-upgraded package to last weekend that impressed its rivals.
Many now believe that Ferrari boasts the strongest chassis but according to the recent ADUO results, it is lacking in engine performance – is a key aspect of the 2026 regulations.
The findings stated that Red Bull is the surprise benchmark with Mercedes 2-4% behind, while Ferrari is over 4% off meaning it receives two upgrade tokens which could be a gamechanger.
“We’re lucky that Ferrari don’t have a better engine at the minute,” McLaren’s Norris told Sky Sports. “If they had a better engine, they’re dominating.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, George Russell, Mercedes, Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
“They’re the class of the field in terms of cornering performance at the minute and we’re not even close to them. It’s the realistic point of it, we’re a long, long way from where we need to be.
“If they make improvements on the engine side, then they’ll embarrass everyone. We need to really get our heads down and see what improvements we can do. But the team are working hard. It’s not that we’re not doing that, we’re working very hard.
“Everyone back in the factory is doing the best they can. Some things take time, but we need to really accelerate the progress at the minute because we want to stay in the fight.”
Norris’ comments came after finishing third behind Hamilton and Russell in Barcelona, though he was aided by Antonelli’s late retirement and Charles Leclerc crashing for Ferrari in Q3.
As such, the reigning world champion is worried by the gap McLaren now holds to the top two and his thoughts were echoed by team-mate Oscar Piastri, who finished fifth in Barcelona.
The Australian largely drove his own race to finish 35s off the podium and 59s behind Hamilton, a huge gap between McLaren and Ferrari that wasn’t there earlier in the campaign.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
“They’ve been very, very close to us,” Piastri told Sky Sports. “Us and Ferrari have been very close for the first part of the year.
“The last couple of weekends they were probably a bit of a step ahead. But this weekend, with all their new parts, they’re working well.
“Also in a race like today, where the grip is so low, the tyres are so fragile, I think it probably plays to the strengths of their car as well.
“They’ve got a lot of downforce, probably the most downforce out of everybody. But also a lot of drag. But when you need to protect the tyres, I think that helps you.
“So yes, clearly some work for us to do. There’s work for me to do because it was not an easy race.”
The Barcelona Grand Prix means McLaren is third in the standings, 121 and 49 points behind Mercedes and Ferrari respectively, whereas it is 52 ahead of fourth-placed Red Bull.
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