The 2026 F1 season has been a challenge for the reigning Constructors’ Champions McLaren and their drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, as the team currently sits third in the Teams’ Standings with 46 points.
After a run of misfortune—with Piastri crashing at his home race in Melbourne and both cars failing to start the race in Shanghai—McLaren finally saw both of their drivers complete all racing laps for the first time in 2026 at Suzuka.
This leaves last year’s benchmark team 89 points adrift of the current leaders, Mercedes. With the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GP creating a month-long break in the calendar, the McLaren duo reflected on how their season has unfolded so far and where the team’s focus lies heading into the rest of the season.
Norris: Expectations set for 2026 were high but have been difficult to meet
“It’s not been the start of the season we had hoped for, and we’ve had some difficult weekends so far. Obviously, coming into the year as defending champions both as a team and as a driver, the expectations we set ourselves are high,” said the reigning World Champion.
In 2026, the Briton has yet to outqualify his teammate in the main qualifying session, although he did come out ahead during Sprint Qualifying in Shanghai. While McLaren have no longer found themselves fighting at the front of the field consistently, Norris admitted that, despite their current lack of competitiveness, the team remains in a strong position to work its way back to the front.
“We want to be taking pole positions, winning races and leading both championships, but that’s not where we are. We’re not in a terrible position, but we’ve definitely got to work to get back in contention for wins, and even then, we need to keep going to make sure we’ve got a car capable of winning every single weekend.”
McLaren’s struggles with development
The 11-time race winner highlighted how even small gains can make a significant difference, adding that maximising time in the car to understand the demands of the current power unit has been extremely important.
Norris said: “We’ve also had some issues that really haven’t helped our development of these cars. One thing we realised very early is that time in the car, and getting laps on the board, is so important when it comes to learning how to get the most out of the car, and specifically the power unit.
“Tiny, tiny margins make significant differences. Combine that with the fact that we didn’t start the Grand Prix in China, and that we didn’t get enough track time during practice in Japan, and it’s easy to see where we’re lacking.”
With the 2026 F1 Miami GP fast approaching, McLaren is set to introduce a new package that could help close the gap to Mercedes. Having taken part in a tyre test at the Nürburgring, Norris emphasised that any time behind the wheel remains valuable.
“However, we’re using this gap between Japan and Miami to do what we can to fill that gap in our understanding. We’re putting a lot of time in on the sim, and we’re back behind the wheel for a tyre test at the Nürburgring. Despite that test being focused on tyres for next year, time behind the wheel is certainly never going to hurt.”
“It has been a tricker start to the season than we wanted” — Piastri on McLaren’s tough start to 2026 F1 season
Like Norris, the Australian shared similar sentiments to his teammate, saying: “I think it’s fair to say that it has been a trickier start to the season than we wanted. Coming into this year as World Champions, we made it clear that it would be a reset across the grid, but we’d be lying if we said we hadn’t hoped to be closer to the front.”
“Getting to grips with this new generation of cars has been challenging, as we expected, and we’ve seen how important track time is for this, so to not start the first two races did take away significant and essential learning time, which is frustrating.”
After failing to start the first two races of the season, a podium finish in Suzuka offered encouraging signs for McLaren. Acknowledging that Mercedes and Ferrari entered the season as clear favourites, the 25 year-old believes the team has the ability to work its way back to the front once again.
“We’ve done well to take what we could from these weekends, which helped feed into the strong performance in Japan, which felt like one of my best weekends. It showed that when we start the race, we’re actually quite good!”
“We knew that Mercedes and Ferrari were going to be strong this year but I think we made a positive step in Japan. We’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to be at the front, but I know this team has the ability to develop across the year and I look forward to seeing what we can do when we go racing again.”
