Practice data and team comments from Suzuka make the situation pretty clear. McLaren arrived with strong single-lap speed, but the MCL40 is not yet clean in every area. The squad is waiting for updates planned for Miami, while engineers keep working through some reliability headaches.

Friday in Suzuka: quick in qualifying trim, bothered by issues in race trim

The headline is simple. Oscar Piastri showed good one-lap pace, but the weekend also exposed a few technical problems. In FP2 Lando Norris lost about half an hour of running because of a hydraulic fault. This comes after a significant problem in China where the team missed a start due to two electrical failures tied to the Mercedes power unit battery. Those reliability interruptions blunt the work you can do on setup and race simulation.

The encouraging bit is the single-lap performance from Piastri. The worrying bit is corner speed and consistency, where Mercedes still appears stronger based on the early practice data.

Where McLaren is losing time

Looking at the sector splits and telemetry, a few clear patterns emerge.

  • Sector 1, corners 3-4-5-6: George Russell carried, on average, about 8 km/h more through this quick change-of-direction sequence. The number is adjusted for different energy recovery strategies, so it points to a genuine handling or aerodynamic gap through rapid transitions.
  • Exit to Degner: Piastri was stronger on the exit of the short uphill corner that leads to Degner, handing him good short-term acceleration. That advantage, however, only covers a brief stretch. Mercedes were faster again on the run toward and through Degner itself.
  • Spoon curve area: Spoon remained generally in Mercedes favor for the cornering line and mid-corner speed. Piastri showed an advantage on the straight that links the hairpin exit to the Spoon entry, but not through Spoon itself.

What this means

In plain terms, McLaren has the pace for a single hot lap but is still losing time where the car must change direction quickly and hold mid-corner speed. The team is counting on upgrades to close that gap, while also trying to stop reliability issues from eating into valuable running time.

Published 27 March 2026