Lando Norris conceded the "tables have turned" on McLaren after last year's dominant Singapore Grand Prix winner felt George Russell's 2025 pole lap was "out of our league".
McLaren was beaten to pole for the third event running as this time Mercedes emerged as the team to beat in qualifying in Singapore, with Max Verstappen, the winner of the last two races, qualifying second for Red Bull.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri was the best of the McLarens in third, 0.366s slower than Russell, while Norris was only fifth and more than four tenths off the pace after a disappointing Q3.
Unlike in Azerbaijan, where a tricky McLaren was still fast enough to be in the mix had the two drivers done a better job, the MCL39 looked genuinely short of the pace required to match either Mercedes or Red Bull in Singapore qualifying.
Norris said "we're just not quick enough" and, pointing to Russell's pole lap, added: "Especially to do a 1m29.1s is just out of our league at the minute, just as we were out of some others' leagues last year and at times this year."
It comes a year after Norris edged Verstappen to pole by only a tenth then went on to blitz the race as McLaren's superior tyre management came to the fore over the full distance.
That trend has continued this year, with McLaren winning more poles than any other team, but Norris said he believes something about the track surface and warm weather of Singapore has hurt it this time around.
"The tables have turned," he said. "And I think also everyone seems to be struggling a lot with the front tyres this weekend.
"We know that's a weakness of our car at times. It's also my worst nightmare, understeer.
"We've seen in Vegas that whenever people struggle to get the front tyres in, Mercedes normally rise to the top like they've done this weekend.
"We put it down to more of the track conditions and the new Tarmac pieces are high-grip, very understeery. And we just couldn't get the front of the car to work this weekend.
"So, we're still struggling. Hopefully less of an issue tomorrow. We're just not quick enough and I just didn't do the best job."
While Norris mentioned Las Vegas, where Russell won for Mercedes in dominant fashion last year when McLaren was limited by a weak front axle, that was very different as it came in much cooler conditions.
Norris seems to be suggesting therefore that having understeer in the car has hurt McLaren this weekend even if the cause is a different set of circumstances to its 2024 Las Vegas struggle.
Key 2025 problem arises again
Norris also hinted that the 2025 McLaren, which has a different front suspension design that has caused both drivers some difficulties especially earlier in the year, is more susceptible to the problem because it dulls the front end slightly.
"On the medium tyres this weekend I've always felt very comfortable," said Norris.
"The mediums have often had more front-end and it just suits me. I can get more laptime out of it. It feels more reminiscent of last year and the feelings I want from the car.
"Now we put the soft on and I struggle again. Still lingering feelings of the car just not performing.
"The issues I've had this year, which is the front of the car, seem to have arose again this weekend."
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said there has been a pattern across the Azerbaijan and Singapore weekends that resembles the Canadian GP earlier this season.
Russell and Verstappen were the top two in Montreal in June as well, and McLaren was third-best behind those two teams especially in qualifying.
The core similarity between the tracks is that they have a lot of short corners, and bumpy braking zones.
Stella said McLaren is "suffering a bit" when the emphasis is on short corners that don't give its car the chance to make up time that it seems to be losing under braking and on traction.
He also suggested another potential variable, which is that the 2025 front tyres could be playing into the dulled feeling that the McLaren drivers struggle with on the front axle.
"Lando has highlighted pretty much from the start of the season, when he was talking about the front of the car, it's difficult to get the feeling," said Stella.
"We keep adding comments which, in my view, do highlight that the change of tyres from last year to this year somehow plays a little bit of a factor.
"Last year, our drivers, they were much more comfortable driving around Singapore. And this year, right from free practice one, they make comments about the behaviour of the front tyres.
"This was less on hard and medium, but definitely was the case on soft tyres."
