Norris: “We certainly enjoy being first a lot more than third”

Written by Bo Helmus

The reigning world champion is having a disappointing start to the season  | Credit: Formula One

After a dominant 2025 season, McLaren is experiencing a difficult start to 2026. Lando Norris took a fifth place finish in Australia, but did not start in China. Oscar Piastri hasn’t even raced a single lap yet. Can the team from Woking improve in Japan?

In Thursday’s press conference, Norris reflected on the team’s performance at the Shanghai International Circuit: “Of course it hurt us as a team. It certainly didn’t make us look good to have two cars not starting a race.”

Bad luck in China

But, there’s also a little bit of hope for the Papaya’s, as the driver mentioned that they know what the problem was: “It took a little bit of time to figure things out.” The HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] system is new for McLaren, and getting it to work is tricky. 

Neither Norris nor Piastri started the race in China | Credit: Formula One

“I think what hurt more is the fact it was out of our control,” the Brit continues. “But with HPP we’ve worked hard to figure things out, to understand how it happened, why it happened, and of course we’ll do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“You live and you learn. It was a tough one for all of us. None of us want to have a weekend like that, and especially starting Sunday like that. It hurt a lot, but I think at the same time a good time for us to learn, step back and move on to this weekend.”

Keep a positive attitude

The problem might not be solved yet, but identifying it is step one for the team. Norris has faith in the team for the remainder of the season: “The car’s got a lot of potential. I know the boys and the girls back at the factory are working very hard, and there’s good progress happening. It takes time to improve on some things.” 

Everyone at McLaren is working hard to overcome these problems | Credit: Formula One

The Brit is realistic: “You can’t have the best of everything, and I think as a team we certainly are not where we want to be and where we desire to be, but I think we all know within the team what we can achieve. Now is just as good of a time as ever to prove exactly what we can do as a team, against Ferrari, against Mercedes, who are performing very well at the minute.

Luckily for McLaren, big competitors like Red Bull are also struggling. “It’s not like we’re bad, we’re still the third best team at the minute,” Norris says. “But we certainly enjoy being first a lot more than third. Time will tell. We’ve got some things in the pipeline and everyone’s working hard, so we’re ambitious to get back to the top.”

Everything is possible

It wouldn’t be the first time that the team closes a big gap. “I can’t remember how many points we were behind in 2024 from Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, but I think we were over 150 points behind and we still managed to come back and win the Constructors’.”

Norris thinks the Papaya team will improve throughout the season | Credit: Formula One

The world champion is not focusing on championships at the moment: “I don’t know how far behind we are now. It’s already quite a bit. But I think we’re not necessarily thinking of that just yet. What we are thinking of is getting on the podium first of all and then returning to winning races.

“The points then take care of themselves and we’ll see what we can claw back, and we’re confident in that. We’re confident as a team and we believe in ourselves, that we won the last two championships and we won the Drivers’ last year because we could build the best car on the grid, and I’m confident we can get back to doing that this year.”

Finally, Norris said: “We’re certainly not where we want it to be, but I think the real question to ask is would I rather be here and have won last year, or would I rather have a slightly better car now and not have won last year, and I think you know what my answer would be.”