McLaren boss Andrea Stella said Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were going through a “tough time” following the team’s difficult start to the season, but said he was confident the drivers were ready to bounce back from their early setbacks in 2026.
The two-time constructors’ champion’s title defense got off to a disappointing start, with world champion Norris finishing fifth in the opening race in Australia, the only race result of a record four wins so far.
Oscar Piastri crashed before the race at his home turf in Australia, while both McLaren drivers failed to start in China last weekend due to electrical issues with their cars’ power units.
This left McLaren with a wide one-third lead over the early pacesetters Mercedes and Ferrari. In the drivers’ standings, Norris is in 6th place with 15 points, while Piastri is in 12th place with only 3 points, which he earned at the Shanghai Sprint.
When asked how he felt about driver management, McLaren team principal Stella said: “It’s definitely a tough time.”
“It’s going to be quite difficult for Oscar to handle considering he was unable to race at the start of the 2026 campaign.
“But at the same time, and this was attested and witnessed in my conversations with Lando and Oscar after the race, they both still feel very positive.
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“In terms of the journey from 2023, I think what we’ve had at McLaren has been a very good journey of developing a culture, a mindset, what we call a winner’s mindset within the company. Just a positive attitude, which is to focus on what we can control.”
“In this case (in China) there wasn’t much we could control, so we just have to take what learnings we can and act again.”
Stella said that the lessons learned from the difficulties of the previous season will get them through.
“If you look back at last year, when we won the double championship, we said that, I said it publicly, but definitely internally we said the victory was not in Abu Dhabi,” he added.
“The victories came because we endured hardships in Qatar (when strategic mistakes cost both drivers) and Las Vegas (when both cars were disqualified). That’s where you become a true champion.
“So this is part of the same part of the journey, the day you have to endure that hardship, you have to process it, you have to use it to become an even more worthy champion in the future and to acquire the qualities to be a champion.
“That’s our mindset, and I’ve seen it reflected perfectly in Oscar, Lando and the team.”
‘Be careful in Miami’ – How soon can McLaren close the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari?
Stella admitted that the biggest consequence of double DNS in Shanghai was the loss of World Championship points.
With the Silver Arrows’ second consecutive one-two finish, the defending champions are already 80 points behind leaders Mercedes.
McLaren, like Red Bull, are trailing Mercedes and Ferrari on pace in the opening two races of the season. The Woking team said that while there was room to make more use of the Mercedes engine, the MCL40 car needed to be improved.
Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft told the latest edition of The F1 Show podcast that the May 1-3 Miami Grand Prix could be a key race for McLaren’s upgrade.
“It’s a big worry to have two separate problems that shut down the car, but it shows how fragile these cars are,” Mr Croft said.
“A lot of people are suffering. In Shanghai we had four cars that didn’t get off the line, and that’s not what we want. Reliability has been great over the last few years, but over time that’s not always the case, but we don’t want to see cars not starting.
Piastri and Norris hope to return to the front of the grid soon
“McLaren is aware that potentially big updates are coming for Miami, which should resolve a number of issues that prevent them from competing with Mercedes.
“They know it’s not just a power issue, they know they can improve aerodynamically a lot more, so be careful in Miami.
“That’s why it’s important that Ferrari and Mercedes make hay while McLaren and Red Bull are struggling a bit.”
F1 will next head to the iconic Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix from March 27-29, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports now – cancel anytime with no contract
