Ahead of the 2026 F1 Miami GP, Lando Norris has discussed his hopes for McLaren following the new upgrades they have added. After the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, teams had more time to look at the data from the first three races and work on their cars.
Norris on how confident McLaren are for the F1 Miami GP
McLaren have a history of winning in Miami. Lando Norris achieved his first F1 race win at this venue in 2024, and Oscar Piastri claimed the top step of the podium in 2025. After a difficult start to the season and both drivers not starting the Chinese GP, McLaren will be hoping their upgrades and the luck they’ve seen in Miami before will give them a chance at ending Mercedes’ race winning streak.
The Miami GP is a sprint weekend, meaning the teams only get one practice session. The FIA have extended FP1 to 90 minutes this weekend to give teams more time to test out the regulation changes.
During a print media session ahead of the 2026 F1 Miami GP, Norris discussed the potential of the MCL40 this weekend after comments from team boss Andrea Stella at Woking in a media session recently about a new car for the North American races this month.
“Yeah, I mean we certainly want to be hopeful. I think we are certainly confident that it can help us move forward. I think just because we say it’s a new car doesn’t mean it’s one second.
“And we do have a good history of bringing parts and them working efficiently and working as they should. So, we want to believe in what we’re bringing this weekend. It’s also a sprint so it’s not like we’re going to be able to maximise everything perfectly. But we will give it a good shot.”
Lando Norris considers McLaren’s competition in Miami
McLaren are not the only team that have brought upgrades to Miami. Most teams will arrive to the Miami International Autodrome with changes to their cars. Ferrari are briniging major upgrades this weekend, also hoping to close the gap between themselves and Mercedes.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc stated during his media day session that their main focus was to hold off the McLarens this weekend.
The Briton discussed how not having prior running time with the upgrades has put McLaren on the back foot, as Ferrari ran theirs in a filming day at Monza. However, he is confident the team can still produce a good result at the 2026 F1 Miami GP.
“But it was also a good opportunity for the whole team to review everything. To kind of reset, try and kick off the season once again from this point onwards. It’s been a good track, like you said, for us in the past. So, we hope some things align and come together, but we also don’t know what our competitors are going to do.
“We know that a lot of them have tested their new parts already. We would have loved to have tested all our new parts already. So we’re a little bit on the back foot from that side of things, sadly, but otherwise I think we are confident we can do a good job and we’re looking forward to trying to move forward this weekend.”
McLaren are currently P3 in the Constructors Championship after three DNS’s lost them valuable points in the championship battle. However, a strong performance from Oscar Piastri in Japan to get P2 has allowed them to keep up with Ferrari. They are hoping to close the gap this weekend.
