Lando Norris delivers robust McLaren rallying cry after shaky F1 title defence

Lando Norris insists his McLaren team still has "hope" and is "excited" by the prospect of fighting for victories in F1 once again.

Reigning champion Norris has not won any of the first seven races of his title defence as McLaren has dropped back from pace-setters to third-fastest for F1's new era, behind Mercedes and Ferrari.

Norris has claimed grand prix podiums in Miami (second) and Barcelona (third) and also won the Miami Sprint race, but has suffered from consecutive DNFs in Canada and Monaco through reliability failures, whilst he and team-mate Oscar Piastri did not even start the Chinese GP after power unit technical problems struck on the grid.

McLaren finds itself third in the standings, 121 points behind Mercedes, with Norris fifth in the drivers' championship, 83 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli. 

However, the Briton still believes McLaren can win the title and be back to grand prix-winning ways quickly, with its last victory being the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in November, courtesy of Norris.

"I still believe we can win; we should have won in Miami, we could have won a race this year just on pure pace, and because we would have deserved it," Norris explained to media, including RacingNews365, when asked how he was dealing with the mental shift of being challenging for wins in 2025 to not being in the fight in 2026.

"That still gives me plenty of hope, not considering how far off we were at the beginning of the year. 

"I think it's just the DNFs, the [lack of] reliability we've had, which has just hurt a lot. 

"I don't think the title is impossible, and saying it makes it feel like it starts to be more impossible, but I will still believe for as long as possible that it is possible, and still on the cards.

"I still believe as a team we can turn things around and make progress, but we're also against a team and the driver at the minute that's dominating, that's not making mistakes, that's getting everything right, a driver that's doing an unbelievable job, and it's hard to have a lot of confidence if you're up against someone like that.

"Miami and Canada were still two decent weekends on pace. We could have had two podiums, but we have one, so the hope is still there. 

"The belief is still there, and now I will continue to believe that it's possible, and I think for us we're still excited just to try and get some podiums going again, that excites us at the minute, and I'm still excited for us to get back to winning, because I think that's possible."