Autosport has reported:

McLaren cannot fully resolve the handling characteristics of its Formula 1 car until it makes fundamental technical changes, team principal Andrea Stella says. Those changes are not expected to be possible before the team’s all-new MCL41 for 2027, leaving drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to contend with the problem in the meantime.

Every driver has had to adjust to this year’s new generation of cars and engines to extract their maximum performance. Some have adopted techniques they had not used in their careers, while McLaren has also spent the season dealing with a more pronounced handling issue.

The cars use V6 turbo hybrid engines with increased electrical power elements. Norris and Piastri have both worked to adapt their driving styles, but McLaren’s handling characteristics have constrained the team’s progress relative to its front-running rivals.

The issue appears to have affected Piastri more than Norris, partly because the two drivers have different natural styles. Stella said changes due to arrive in the coming races, including adding downforce, would not correct the underlying characteristic.

“I don't expect that what's coming to the car will improve this characteristic. I think we need something more fundamental than simply adding some downforce to the car like it's happening in the coming races,” Stella said. “Without fundamentally changing some further aspect which we are addressing longer term and at the earliest I would say with the MCL41 for 2027.”

After the Singapore Grand Prix, Norris described having to force the car to behave as he wanted rather than finding a comfortable balance. He said it was operating close to the limit in every corner and demanded precise inputs throughout a lap.

“It's [the car] just on a knife edge on every single corner,” Norris said. “You've just got to drive it within an exact percent, and you have to force the car in every single way. You can't let the car do any work. You can't just let the front do the work, or the rear do the work. You have to force the front; you've got to force the rear.”

Norris said that approach required sustained concentration and skill, and left him mentally drained. He said the difficulty made it hard to put together laps in qualifying, adding that this showed how strong the team had been when it managed to secure pole positions and how rewarding those results had felt.

“We haven't been quick enough now, it's just too difficult and you can't do anything magical because you're simply not quick enough. You have to force the car, and you can't let the car do any work because it doesn't do it on its own. And that's not what you want from a car at all,” Norris said.

Stella said the need for more intense driving inputs had been a feature of McLaren’s car throughout the season and that both drivers had needed time to understand it. He said the required effort was much greater than last year, and that Piastri’s smoother, gentler natural inputs made the adjustment more difficult.

“The fact that the car needs quite a lot of effort to deliver lap time, and it requires a level of intensity in the driving input, which is much superior to last year, this is something that took some time for the drivers to understand,” Stella said.

He linked the issue to a period when Piastri nearly lost some of his competitiveness compared with Norris. Stella said the team had discussed what was happening with the Australian, but he had maintained that it was a technical matter: Piastri needed to learn how to force the car to do certain things, even if driving fast no longer meant driving cleanly.

Stella contrasted that with Piastri’s earlier strengths. He said the driver had previously been clean, repeatable and fast, with those qualities visible in the data, but that they did not often come together in the current car. Stella said adapting to it required a lot of work from the drivers.

The reporting also identified Norris and Piastri as McLaren’s drivers and described Piastri as an Australian whose smoother and gentler inputs posed a greater adjustment challenge. Images accompanying the coverage identified Piastri as a McLaren driver, with photo credits to Simon Galloway and Sam Bloxham of LAT Images via Getty Images. The source also listed related coverage on the seriousness of a Norris-Piastri clash in Singapore and McLaren junior Van Langendonck securing the British F4 title.