Suzuka International Racing Course, Friday, 27 March

Find out what happened during FP1 and FP2 in Suzuka, and get the thoughts of McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Senior Director, Racing, Randy Singh.

The McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team returned to track action today with more valuable lap time secured in the MCL40. The third Friday of the 2026 season ended with Oscar topping the timesheet with a 1m30.133s lap, but the team experienced a busy afternoon with a hydraulic leak limiting the number of laps Lando could complete in Free Practice 2.

The team investigated the hydraulic leak before the second session but could not find the source in any parts that could be changed in time. Having replaced what could be changed and through careful management during running, Lando was eventually able to spend important time on track with McLaren Mastercard, completing 89 laps in total across both cars throughout the day.

Overall, the approach for Friday had always been seen as a day for experimentation. With China having been a Sprint weekend, and our next two races also being Sprints, followed by Monaco, realistically, today was the last opportunity before mid-June to build an accurate picture of the current aerodynamic performance of the car, which in turn will inform our future development plans. Therefore, McLaren Mastercard began the day with aerodynamic rakes fitted to both cars: Lando running a saddle rake behind the front wheels, and Oscar having a smaller array at the rear of the car.

Free Practice 2 then saw Oscar and Lando experience time on both the Medium and Soft tyre compounds with a variety of high- and low-fuel runs complete. This added to the great deal of data that has been collected, which will play an important part in the continued development of the MCL40, while also preparing the team for the competitive sessions across the weekend here in Japan.

Despite Oscar topping the timesheets in FP2, the underlying competitive picture appears to have remained the same as previous races. Since the opening double-header, the team has worked hard to understand how to extract performance from the 2026 regulation power units, and some progress has been made in this area. However, with no upgrades to the car this weekend, our performance in FP2 is likely to be an outlier over the weekend, as it is expected that Mercedes and Ferrari will resume their positions as the first and second fastest teams as we head into competitive running.

"Overall, it was a decent day for us. We felt like we made some good progress, particularly in the second Practice session, which was encouraging. The feeling is positive, and we've gathered some valuable data that puts us in a solid position.

"We know there's still work to do, and it's clear that some of our competitors, especially Mercedes, are very strong. However, the focus is on our own performance. We hope to build on the progress from today and carry that momentum forward to be even more competitive."

“Tricky day, we didn’t get the laps we needed. Early in FP2 we couldn’t do much more than one lap at a time, and a lot of the morning was aero work, so the running we did manage wasn’t really representative. Around a track like this, you just want laps to build confidence and refine the setup, and right now we’re two or three steps behind with no long runs and very limited consecutive running.

“With that said, we pulled a few things together at the end and learned a bit, even if it wasn’t as much as we’d have liked. We’ll use the night to reset, go through the data we have, and try to fix some things so we can get meaningful laps on the board and get back on track tomorrow.”

Randy Singh

Senior Director, Racing

"We made the most of our opportunities today despite a challenging start. After FP1, the team did a fantastic job to manage a hydraulic issue on Lando's car and ensure we still gathered valuable data from the session. Seeing Oscar finish P1 is always encouraging, and it shows we are working hard to extract the maximum from the package, but we remain realistic. We don't believe the fundamental pecking order has changed since the last race.

“Our focus for this weekend is clear: maximise every session, harvest as many points as we can, and continue to learn what we need to develop the car further. The season has presented its challenges, but every race is an opportunity to improve. We are focused on our own programme and executing a clean weekend to secure the best possible result."