Lando Norris is confident that McLaren can still mount a serious fight for the world championship once the Formula 1 calendar picks up again after the Miami Grand Prix. Even though Mercedes and Ferrari have enjoyed stronger starts to this new era of the sport, the British driver believes the team’s recent setbacks are not fatal and that there is ample room for improvement during the upcoming break. Norris, who entered the season as the defending champion, has not yet stood on the podium in any of the first three rounds of his title defence.
His teammate, Oscar Piastri, managed a second‑place finish at the Japanese Grand Prix and could have taken the win if the Safety Car had not intervened during a promising run for McLaren. That incident, coupled with the enforced April hiatus, gave the squad a rare window to regroup and work on the car back at their headquarters.
"I think we can have a good season, even if we're not where we want to be right now," Norris said, acknowledging that the team trails early championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes by 47 points. "And although we haven't started the season where we want to be, we still want to push hard for the championship.
This isn’t a case of giving up and looking ahead to next year – that approach rarely works." He pointed to several historical examples where teams have turned a slow start into a strong finish, citing McLaren’s own progress in 2023 and 2024 as proof that the organisation has learned valuable lessons and emerged more robust. "We've been there, done it, learned from it and I trust that this team knows how to do it again. There's plenty of hard work ahead, but we're ready for it," he added.
The upcoming hiatus gives McLaren roughly five weeks in the factory and another two weeks before the Miami round, offering a crucial period for engineers to address reliability concerns that have plagued both the chassis and the Mercedes power unit. Norris emphasized that fixing these issues is essential if the team hopes to contend for race wins on a regular basis. "We're not in a terrible position, but we definitely have to work to get back in contention for wins, and even then we need to keep going to make sure we have a car capable of winning every single weekend," he explained. Norris also highlighted the importance of track time, noting that limited laps in practice sessions—particularly the lack of a full weekend in China and reduced running in Japan—have hampered the crew’s ability to fine‑tune the car’s performance.
He stressed that in Formula 1, "tiny, tiny margins make significant differences." The shortage of on‑track data has left the team with a knowledge gap that they are now trying to bridge through intensive simulator work and a tyre‑testing program at the Nürburgring. While the test primarily focused on next‑year tyre specifications, Norris argued that any additional time behind the wheel is valuable for understanding the car’s behaviour and extracting maximum performance from the power unit. Oscar Piastri echoed his teammate’s optimism, stating that the team has the capacity to return to regular victory contention over the remaining 19 races.
"We have a lot of work to do to be back at the front consistently, but closing the gap to Mercedes and out‑developing the field is something that's within our control," the Australian driver said. Piastri also reflected on McLaren’s history of turning adversity into advantage, noting that the current situation feels stronger than previous challenges, such as those faced in 2024.
"I have complete trust that the team will do everything they can to get us there and I am genuinely excited to see what we can achieve," he added. Looking ahead, the Formula 1 calendar resumes on May 1‑3 with the Miami Grand Prix, which also marks the season’s second Sprint weekend. The event will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1, and fans can stream the coverage via NOW without a contract, canceling at any time.
Norris and Piastri will aim to capitalize on the extra development time, hoping to close the points deficit, improve reliability, and deliver the kind of race‑winning pace that could see McLaren back on the top step of the podium before the season’s end. In summary, while the early part of the campaign has not unfolded as the team hoped, both drivers stress that the combination of factory work, simulator sessions, and additional on‑track testing provides a realistic pathway to recover lost ground. Their message to supporters and rivals alike is clear: McLaren is far from conceding, and the title fight remains very much alive as they head into the Miami sprint and the rest of the 2026 schedule.