Lando Norris reveals surprise at timing of McLaren recovery

Lando Norris has admitted McLaren's return to winning ways at the Hungarian Grand Prix came earlier than he anticipated, after the reigning F1 drivers' and constructors' champions endured a bruising start to their title defences.

Norris dominated at the Hungaroring to take his and McLaren's first grand prix victory of the 2026 season, finishing over 15 seconds clear of Max Verstappen after the team introduced a comprehensive upgrade package centred on a new floor, revised front and rear corners, and reworked brake ducts.

The result marked a significant turning point for a team that had entered the campaign as double reigning constructors' champions yet found itself on the back foot almost immediately.

Reliability issues involving MGU-K failures on both cars in Shanghai followed Oscar Piastri's crash on the reconnaissance lap in Melbourne, leaving McLaren with just 18 points after two rounds, already 80 adrift of Mercedes.

McLaren's approach to the new regulations was deliberately cautious. Team principal Andrea Stella and his engineering staff chose to keep the MCL40 in its launch specification through the opening races, prioritising understanding the car's behaviour and power unit integration over chasing early performance with speculative upgrades.

That patience came at a cost. Norris sits fifth in the drivers' standings on 128 points, 91 behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, while McLaren trail Mercedes by 159 points in the constructors' table.

The car has been particularly weak in high-speed corners, a deficiency Stella acknowledged required a conceptual "redirection" that would take one to two months to bear fruit — Norris recently estimated it could take three.

"One thing I've learned for sure is just to have no expectations of the future and just to work in the present. I think that's the way we've been doing everything as a team," the British driver said.

"That's why we were back on top in Hungary: just working hard on ourselves as individuals and also as a team."

Hungary was identified as the target for the first major results of that revised development direction, and the upgrade package delivered beyond expectations.

The 12-time grand prix winner, though, was clear that the victory should not mask the work still required.

"Of course, I'm optimistic for the future, and I think we can win more races, but we have good competition, and there are still plenty of races I'm not confident in because the car is not to the standard that it needs to be in certain areas. But I have confidence in the team," he added.

"I had confidence that we could win a race, and it came a bit sooner than I thought. I have confidence that we can improve in those areas that are not good enough at the time."