After two consecutive wins by Lando Norris, Nico Rosberg believes that Mercedes has serious reasons to worry. The former champion predicts a particularly difficult end of the season.
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Mercedes dominated the first part of the 2026 season, but the Formula 1 hierarchy seems to be shifting. After Budapest, Lando Norris won again at Zandvoort and the speed shown by the McLaren did not escape Nico Rosberg.
The 2016 world champion even believes that his former team must now seriously be wary. Thanks to the significant upgrades introduced by McLaren in Hungary, the MCL40 seems to have closed its gap and now has an impressive advantage in certain conditions.
At Zandvoort, Norris notably showed a pace that Mercedes was never able to match.
“Mercedes will now be worried about McLaren’s pace, because they are now the team to beat,” warns Rosberg.
Norris up to eight tenths faster than Russell
Norris’s performance in the Netherlands particularly impressed Rosberg.
After losing the lead to Kimi Antonelli during the restart following the accident of Max Verstappen, the Briton built his race with an offset strategy before closing in on the Mercedes.
But it was especially his pace on hard tires that impressed.
“Lando’s pace with those hard tires… He was seven or eight tenths per lap faster than George in a similar situation,” notes Rosberg.
A considerable gap at this level of competition.
“Lando was literally flying. His speed was incredible.”
This superiority allowed him to get back into the fight for the win before definitively taking the lead over Antonelli.
Norris ultimately won with an 11.5-second lead over the championship leader.
“A really tough end of the season for Mercedes”
Mercedes still holds an extremely comfortable position in terms of points. Antonelli still has an 83-point lead over Norris in the drivers’ championship, while the German team also has a significant margin in the constructors’ championship.
But the momentum is worrying.
McLaren currently seems to be developing its car faster than Mercedes, while Toto Wolff recently explained that his team now has limited financial means to continue developing the W17 under the budget cap.
Rosberg believes this situation could become problematic if McLaren continues to progress at the same pace.
“They are developing this car faster than anyone. This could become a really tough end of the season for Mercedes. Really.”
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A conclusion that matches Antonelli’s. After Zandvoort, the Italian himself acknowledged that Mercedes might now be only the second, or even the third force on the grid.
Norris also impresses behind the wheel
However, Rosberg refuses to attribute McLaren’s spectacular comeback solely to the MCL40’s upgrades.
At Zandvoort, Norris also had to earn his victory on track.
The Dutch circuit is traditionally considered particularly difficult for overtaking, but the reigning world champion managed to get the better of Antonelli before pulling away in the lead.
“Who said you can’t overtake at Zandvoort? We saw so many beautiful overtakes,” emphasizes Rosberg.
The former Mercedes driver even goes as far as to call the Briton’s performance a champion’s demonstration.
“An exciting race and a world champion performance from Lando.”
From nine tenths behind to “the man to beat”
The turnaround is all the more spectacular because McLaren seemed very far from Mercedes at the start of the season.
Rosberg recalls that in Melbourne, at the season opener, the Woking team was still nearly nine tenths behind its German rival.
A few months later, the situation seems almost reversed.
“Who would have imagined that in Melbourne, McLaren was nine tenths behind Mercedes and now Lando would be the man to beat?”
Nevertheless, Norris faces a huge challenge if he wants to retain his world title. With an 83-point deficit to Antonelli, he cannot just regularly beat the Mercedes: he will also have to rely on several poor performances from the young Italian.
But after two consecutive wins, the threat becomes serious enough that Mercedes can no longer ignore it.
“What a second half of the season awaits us now” concludes Rosberg.
Mercedes still holds the advantage in the championship. On the track, however, McLaren seems to have taken the upper hand.
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