By Cassandra D’Angelo
McLaren are coming off a dominant 2025 season.
Winning the Constructors’ Championship with six races to go; the team’s second championship in as many years.
Going into the new season, McLaren is less confident in dominating the field.
Regulation changes are leaving teams and analysts wondering who will come out on top in Australia, with many speculating it will be a Mercedes or Ferrari.
McLaren is not expected to be the fastest car on track but the team is confident they will remain in the top four. Good drivers paired with consistent car development, team leadership foresee being back to the front of the grid soon.
“It’s a long season with a lot of development,” Zak Brown, Chief Executive of McLaren Racing, said in Bahrain during preseason testing.
Oscar Piastri, nine-time racewinner, agrees with Brown that the car is not ready to win a race.
“I wouldn’t say we’re leading the pack by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel like we’re not too bad,” the Australian said after preseason testing concluded.
Lando Norris, reigning World Champion, is also realistic about where the team is at. He doesn’t believe they will be at the front at the season-opener but believes in his team.
“Developments will come quickly, so patience is key,” Norris said about going into the 2026 season.
Norris got 149 laps in during the second day of testing at Bahrain and is feeling more connected to the car. In the regulation era succeeding in a race will come down to the driver’s ability to manage everything from inside the car.
“I feel like if I went to a race now I’d have a pretty good understanding of everything I need to do along the way,” Norris said.
Norris is coming into the season off his maiden championship win.
He’s feeling more confident and has kept the goal of winning races and another championship for the team in the 2026 season.
“Of course, the goal is exactly the same, but it never gets easier,” Norris told F1TV.
To win another championship Norris knows he has to beat legends the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in a regulation which will be characterized by constant developments.
“When you are fighting these guys you need to be close to perfection,” said Norris at the McLaren Technology Center. “There are plenty of things I want to work on and I want to be better on.”
Piastri narrowly missed out on the Drivers’ title last season. Going into 2026 he is focused on the positives that came out of 2025.
“I feel like I really took a good step forward and those lessons I can take forward into whatever rules we get, so I’m excited,” Piastri said.
During his three seasons in Formula 1 Piastri went from fighting for points to fighting for a championship. The Australian’s fight for the championship was not always clean or polished.
As his results got worse people questioned what was going on in his head.
“The areas I was most pleased with were the way I went about racing – my mindset and my mentality – and how those stood up to the test,” Piastri said at the McLaren Technology Center.
The 2026 season will be taxing on the drivers and teams both physically and mentally as they adjust to a regulation change. This will be the first regulation change Piastri has experienced while on the grid.
Pedro Matos, Piastri’s Formula 2 race engineer, and Emma Murray, his mental performance coach, will be attending more races in the 2026 season while Mark Webber steps back to focus on commercial matters.
McLaren is hoping to win a third consecutive Constructors’ Championship while Norris and Piastri hope to battle for the Drivers’ title.
Norris is confident and Piastri is excited. Both are ready to get racing again in Melbourne on March 8.
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