Lando Norris recently stated his confidence that McLaren can rebound to have the best car on the grid in F1 2026.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown “absolutely” agrees with the reigning world champion on that target. Brown stated that he is “very confident” as McLaren looks to re-enter the F1 winners’ circle, having impressed last time out at Suzuka.
Lando Norris and Zak Brown confident McLaren can lead F1 2026
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After back-to-back constructors’ title wins, and a maiden drivers’ championship for Norris in 2025, McLaren went into F1 2026 striving to nail the new regulations and keep its spot on top.
But Mercedes is the team to have emerged as top dog, taking every pole and win on offer so far.
McLaren made Mercedes work for it at Suzuka, though.
A storming start from Oscar Piastri saw him to go from P3 to the race lead. He was successfully keeping a recovering George Russell at bay later in the race.
Whether Piastri could have held on for the win will remain an unknown, as a safety car emerged at the perfect timing for Russell’s Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli. It gave the Italian a cheap pit stop, allowing him to come in and back out still in the lead.
Antonelli pulled away from Piastri upon the restart and drove on to a second victory of the season.
Heading into the Japanese GP race weekend, Norris had put McLaren’s rivals on notice by declaring belief that the MCL40 can become the best car on the grid.
On the talk of a title challenge recovery, Norris had said: “What we are thinking of is getting on the podium first of all, and then just returning to winning races.
“The points then take care of themselves and we’ll see what we can claw back.
“But we’re confident in that. I want to say I think we’re confident as a team and we believe in ourselves that we’ve 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.
“It just takes time. You have to be patient. But yes, I have a good belief in the team and I think we can have the best car this year.”
Channel 4 presented Brown with Norris’s comments and asked whether he agrees that McLaren can have the best car on the grid at some point in F1 2026.
“Absolutely,” Brown confirmed.
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He added: “First of all, the competition is amazing, but if you see what we’ve done the last couple of years, all the men and women back at McLaren have done a fantastic job upgrading our car.
“We’ve gone from ninth to second, to fourth to first, and here we are, kind of third-quickest today, second-quickest there or thereabout.
“So I’m very confident with all the work we’re doing back at the factory.”
McLaren sits third in the early F1 2026 Constructors’ standings, 44 points behind Ferrari, and 89 back from Mercedes.
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