Jolyon Palmer has dismissed Oscar Piastri’s early lead over Lando Norris in their McLaren head-to-head, even though Norris holds a slight edge in the championship.
While Piastri appears to have more speed at the moment, Norris remains ahead on points.
Piastri missed the first two races of the season but is just four points behind Norris. He crashed before the start in Australia and was sidelined by an electrical fault in China.
Despite that, he leads their qualifying battle 3-0 and marked his first race of the year with a second-place finish at Suzuka, McLaren’s best result of 2026 so far.
Lando Norris facing early season hurdles
Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Palmer pointed out that Norris had been dealing with several car issues during practices. The reigning world champion managed just seven laps in FP1 at the Australian Grand Prix due to a transmission problem.
Then, in Japan, a hydraulic leak kept him in the garage for 20 minutes during FP2, cutting short any chance of a proper long run. He only managed 13 laps in FP3 the next morning as well.
Over the first three race weekends, Piastri has completed 130 laps in practice compared to Norris’ 99. With drivers still learning how best to manage their batteries under new regulations this season, that gap could be significant.
“I feel like Norris has not had a very good run of things,” said Palmer. “China, in the Sprint, he outqualified Oscar. There was not much in it, but he lost out in the China qualifying. Neither of them started the race.
“In Melbourne and Japan he’s had so many issues going through practice that I don’t think we’ve seen Lando on a clean weekend as a reference against Oscar.”
Norris won eight races last season but was still only second-favourite behind Verstappen going into 2026, and for good reason given McLaren’s change from Mercedes to Renault power units.
The switch has put them further down compared to Red Bull and Ferrari this year than at any point since Piastri arrived. Yet his early performances have shown no sign of backing off as McLaren look to play catch up this campaign.
Is Oscar Piastri now leading McLaren’s qualifying?
Back in 2024, Norris had a clear edge over Piastri in qualifying, finishing the season with a dominant 21-3 record.
Piastri and his team recognised that as an area he needed to work on heading into 2025. The improvement was clear, as the head-to-head ended level at 12-12, and swung to 16-14 in his favour once Sprint sessions were added.
This year, it’s started to look like Piastri has an edge over Norris in qualifying, though McLaren’s step back from the front means it isn’t getting much attention yet.
If McLaren do find their way back into the title picture, though, this shift could become more important. The Japanese Grand Prix showed how far he’s come – he led until a safety car changed things against him.
McLaren were criticised for their conservative strategy during that race but with Kimi Antonelli finishing well clear of the field, it’s unlikely any call would have changed the outcome.
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