Lando Norris Could Exit McLaren Over Engine Nightmares, Warns Guenther Steiner

Life comes at you fast in Formula 1, and no team is feeling the whiplash of the 2026 regulations quite like McLaren. Just months after celebrating Lando Norris’s maiden World Championship victory, the papaya garage has found itself completely on the back foot.

As McLaren desperately tries to claw back performance against the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, the paddock rumor mill is already spinning. According to former Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner, if McLaren cannot fix their underlying issues, their star driver won’t hesitate to trigger an exit strategy.

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But to understand why Norris might be looking for the door, you have to look at the massive technical overhaul introduced for the 2026 season.

The new regulations fundamentally changed how F1 cars generate power, removing the complex MGU-H and demanding a 50:50 power delivery split between the internal combustion engine and the electric MGU-K. This aggressive shift to electrification has heavily favored factory works teams.

McLaren driver Lando Norris (1) during the Lenovo Grand Prix Du Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images

McLaren, operating as a customer to Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP), has subsequently struggled with battery integration and electrical reliability. Because customer teams are inevitably behind the works team when it comes to communication, timeline integration, and chassis experiments, McLaren has been unable to fully exploit the new power unit. The frustration is palpable inside the garage; Norris’s teammate, Oscar Piastri, recently vented to the media at Spa about the highly unpredictable and “annoying” nature of the car’s energy management system.

Steiner acknowledged this reality in a recent exclusive interview with 247Bet, praising Norris for keeping a level head in a severely compromised car. “I think he’s realistic that he will not have a shot at the World Championship this year, but I think he’s putting in a respectable performance, anyway,” Steiner noted.

The Contract Break Clauses

The larger question looming over Woking is how long a reigning world champion is willing to pilot a midfield-bound car.

Norris’s current contract situation makes this performance dip critical. While McLaren announced a “multi-year” extension for the Brit in early 2024—theoretically locking him down through at least the end of 2027—elite F1 contracts almost always contain performance-related break clauses. If the Woking outfit falls short of specific championship or constructor targets by the end of the year, Norris could legally extricate himself from the deal.

Steiner believes that if McLaren cannot deliver a championship-caliber package, Norris will pull the ripcord.

“If they can get a car which is better performing, the best drivers go to the best cars, and they want the best car because they want to win, especially after they won the World Championship,” Steiner explained. He offered a blunt warning to McLaren CEO Zak Brown: “Lando will not be sitting around at McLaren in the next five years if it doesn’t get better. Nobody’s doing that”.

The Gridlock Problem for Norris

However, recognizing you need a better car and actually finding an open seat are two entirely different battles.

If Norris were to activate an exit clause today, he would immediately run into an unprecedented bottleneck at the top of the grid. Mercedes has opted for long-term stability, locking in George Russell and teenage phenom Kimi Antonelli through 2026. Ferrari is completely closed off, having secured Charles Leclerc into his thirties on a massive extension alongside seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.

Steiner correctly identified this massive roadblock, pointing out that Norris’s immediate options are severely limited.

Jun 15, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Haas driver Esteban Ocon (31) races ahead of McLaren driver Lando Norris (4) during the F1 Montreal Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

“Lando cannot call up and say to Toto [Wolff], ‘Toto, I want to drive your car.’ Toto will say, ‘Yeah, I know that, but I haven’t got a car for you. Sorry, mate,'” Steiner joked.

Ultimately, while Norris might be actively “looking around” as Steiner suggests, the defending champion is effectively trapped. Until a premium seat opens up at a rival factory team, Norris will have to rely on McLaren’s engineering department to pull off a mid-season miracle.

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