Lando Norris on the spot over untelevised McLaren team radio message

Lando Norris says McLaren “should be doing a better job” in some areas after calling for the team to “get it right for once” in an untelevised team radio message from the British Grand Prix.

Norris has endured a tough start to his title defence after winning the world championship last season, recording just two podium finishes across the first nine rounds of F1 2026.

Lando Norris to McLaren: ‘Let’s get it right for once, please’

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The McLaren driver sits fifth in the drivers’ standings, trailing leader Kimi Antonelli by 82 points ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

Norris finished fourth at his home race at Silverstone last time out, with the world champion gaining two places in the closing stages after Antonelli and Verstappen both hit trouble.

Untelevised team radio footage showed Norris criticising McLaren at the end of the sprint race at Silverstone, where Norris rose from sixth on the grid to third.

Norris told the team on the cooldown lap: “Let’s get it right for once, please.”

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Asked to explain the motive behind his message, Norris was reluctant to be drawn into specifics but admitted that McLaren “needs to do better as a team” in certain aspects.

He told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets of the reason behind his team radio call: “Just a few things, to be honest.

“I don’t need to get into it, but some that we should just be doing a better job on. It’s quite simple.

“Stuff that just limits our performance and limits our potential to get podiums and points when we need to, so just some things we need to do better as a team.”

Norris once again cut a frustrated figure after the main event at Silverstone, admitting that the MCL40 is “not a nice car to drive.”

He said: “Everything but the result was pretty shocking. Don’t know how we finished P4 today, honestly.

“But a big part of it nowadays is reliability.

“I don’t know what happened to Kimi and Max, but a big part of it is just not making mistakes and reliability.

“We got that bit right today, but the pace was pretty poor.

“So not nice. Not a nice car to drive.

“It’s one of the hardest cars I have ever driven in Formula 1. Many things that we need to do.”

Put to him that McLaren’s inconsistent performance level could be track-specific given that he pushed Antonelli for victory in Miami earlier this season, he replied: “We’ve been slow all year.

“[In Miami] other people didn’t do a good job, I guess.

“There’s no way we can finish P2 in Miami and have a car like this today.

“Other people have bought a lot of upgrades and updates since and we kind of haven’t – or nothing that’s brought us so much performance.

“I don’t know. The car was just undriveable, honestly.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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