behind” F1 rivals with its upgrades Norris has suffered a
spluttering defence of his world title thus far, with only two
podiums from the first seven races, which have included two DNFs
and a DNS in China, although he did win the Miami Sprint. Since
mid-2023, McLaren has led the F1 field in terms of bringing
upgrades that successfully worked on track, but the team has not
had the same strike rate in 2026, with a new front-wing first
deployed in Canada being removed. It was reintroduced in
Barcelona, with the team then opting not to run a ‘Macarena’ rear
wing it brought for Austria through practice. Ahead of the Austrian
GP, McLaren is in third in the standings, 121 points behind leaders
Mercedes, with Norris feeling that the MCL40 machine needs
potentially “five” upgrades to be in contention to regularly fight
at the front. “I want a good upgrade, no. We need three, four, or
five,” Norris told Sky Sports F1. “But it depends, sometimes you
take one little piece at a time, and sometimes you try and make
something so it all goes together, because it is a new philosophy
or something. “But we’re certainly like two or three months
behind; that’s not one upgrade, that is a lot of bits, so I don’t
think we’re going to be quick anytime soon, but hopefully over the
next three, four, five months, we can catch up and narrow the gap
to be on pace [with Mercedes and Ferrari]. “To catch up takes a
huge effort from the team, which they’re doing. “Everyone is very
excited and motivated because we know that it is possible, so it is
just that we are like three months behind, and that is a hard task
to overcome. “Everyone in McLaren knows that we can achieve that,
and we’re excited to try and do it.”