Lando Norris sees one major positive for McLaren after disastrous Canadian Grand Prix

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Lando Norris believes McLaren managed to do something no other team could, despite their shortcomings at the Canadian Grand Prix.

After seeing tension between Kimi Antonelli and George Russell rising in Montreal, Norris compared himself to Max Verstappen in 2025.

However, during the Canadian Grand Prix, Norris didn’t capitalise on this tension between the Mercedes driver like Verstappen did last year, as his race ended in a DNF due to an issue with the MCL40.

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The race started off well for Norris and McLaren, but this didn’t last long. In particular, McLaren and Norris’ decision to start with intermediate tyres proved costly for them.

But even with the weekend going as poorly as it did for them, Lando Norris believes McLaren did something no other team was able to.

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Lando Norris believes McLaren’s battle with Mercedes is a positive sign to be ‘excited’ about

Speaking to F1TV after the race, Lando Norris admitted how difficult the experience at the Canadian Grand Prix was for him, admitting that the wet conditions led to the car feeling ‘horrible’ to drive.

And despite the poor result on Sunday, Norris believes McLaren’s ability to push and battle with Mercedes was unparalleled across the grid, and something he hopes to build on going forward.

“It still felt like a horrible car to drive at times, today mainly in these cold conditions, but I’m sure it’s probably similar for everyone.

“We still have to take the positives, and there were plenty of them – we were in a fight with the Mercedes.

“We were the ones giving them a good battle – no one else could, so we have to take those good things away with us, learn what we can improve for next time, and there’s plenty of those things, so I’m still excited for the future.”

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Lando Norris admits he ‘pushed’ for intermediate tyres that cost him the race

Speaking further to reporters, Norris admitted that McLaren’s strategy to go with intermediate tyres cost them the race, but did add that he was a big proponent of the decision.

“If the rain shifted one per cent more, I think [that] would’ve suited me nicely. It didn’t, and it went maybe one per cent the other way, and it’s tough to know these kinds of things.

“Obviously, it was not a bad decision for Lap 1, like it worked out in a way, but at the same time… Well, it was a wrong decision, so we have to accept that and learn what we can use with the information we had to make a better decision next time.

“But I also pushed for it myself quite a bit, so we take it on the chin, and we tried to maximise the race after that, but we had some problems, and we had a failure in the end, which put us out, so, yeah, put us out of our misery in a way.”

It felt like McLaren’s strategy was a little undefined heading into the weekend. After seeing little impact during FP1, McLaren shelved their new front wing to give themselves a better chance.

And given how Norris claimed McLaren didn’t care about Mercedes heading into the weekend, his key takeaway being how competitive they were with Mercedes is a strange change in tune.

For the reigning world champions, the next two weeks are critical, as they must find a way to close the gap with Mercedes at the Monaco Grand Prix to try and recoup the momentum they lost in Montreal.