Lando Norris 'excited' by tantalising McLaren prospect after Hungary statement

Lando Norris has expressed his excitement at the "potential" of McLaren extracting the most from its freshly upgraded F1 car after toiling in recent races.

Armed with a host of fresh upgrades, the reigning champion recorded his first pole of the season in Hungary, and then converted it into a dominant grand prix victory, his and McLaren's first since Sao Paulo 2025, although the Briton did win the Miami Sprint race.

McLaren has found itself off-sequence compared to rivals when bringing upgrades in the first half of the 2026 season, which is creating huge opportunities for teams to add performance given the rule set is so immature, as opposed to the finite returns of the final ground effects season of '25.

The Woking squad's last big upgrade came in Miami, with the team also uncharacteristically having to remove parts from the car for further evaluation, such as the Macarena rear wing, which was initially brought to Austria but not run on track until Hungary. 

In recent years, McLaren's ability to bring substantial upgrade packages that deliver an immediate on-track surge in performance has been second-to-none, with the team also excelling in extracting the potential from its package.

However, in 2026, the team have struggled to hit this height, with boss Andrea Stella believing for the first time that being an engine customer, of Mercedes, has placed McLaren on the "backfoot" in understanding and exploiting the power unit. 

Trying to get near extracting that potential, and of the chassis, is something which makes Norris "excited" for the second-half of the campaign. 

"We still see good potential in the car, and we still believe we can turn things around from where we are now," Norris explained. 

"That’s something to look forward to, and that is a positive, but you don’t have all the time in the world in Formula 1; time is your enemy, so we need to try and bring those improvements as soon as we can. 

"We don't feel like we have fully clicked with our understanding of this car just yet, but even before our latest upgrade package helped us to secure the win in Hungary, we had already secured some good results.  

"We know from the past few years what it is like when you do understand the car and what happens when we can maximise the package.

"We don't feel like we have gotten close to that potential yet, so we are excited to really try and understand it completely, which is when we'll be able to maximise things. 

"As has also been the case in the past, we know when we’re not quite at the front we need to work together as drivers to help the team out-develop our competition. 

"Oscar and I often have very similar feedback, and we’re working well with the aim of getting McLaren back into contention for wins every weekend."