{"id":471567,"date":"2026-02-10T23:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/471567\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T23:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:04:09","slug":"mclarens-chances-after-new-livery-revealed-analysis-development-of-title-winning-car-oscar-piastri-lando-norris-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/471567\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren\u2019s chances after new livery revealed, analysis, development of title winning car, Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren has a tradition of retaining its championship-winning liveries<\/a>, so when the covers came off its 2026 challenger, there were no surprises in the car\u2019s papaya-orange hue.<\/p>\n

Stability radiates from McLaren. Its driver line-up is unchanged. Its senior managers are unchanged. Its power unit supply is unchanged. Having won the last two constructors titles and, last year, its first drives-constructors championship double since 1998, you\u2019d expect nothing less.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re the ingredients for dynastic success of the sort Mercedes and Red Bull Racing have monopolised between them for the last 15 years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship\u2122 LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

But those rules may not apply this season. The regulation changes threaten disruption that could prevent this version of McLaren from fulfilling that destiny.<\/p>\n

There is no mechanical carry-over between seasons. Both the car and the power unit have been built completely from scratch \u2014 and the engine isn\u2019t even in McLaren\u2019s hands, with Mercedes contracted as the supplier.<\/p>\n

And though the drivers their drives are unchanged, their contexts are absolutely different.<\/p>\n

Barely two months have passed since Oscar Piastri lost his chance to claim his maiden championship after having led the series for 15 rounds, more than any other driver.<\/p>\n

His teammate, Lando Norris, picked up the pieces instead and enters this season not as an underrated McLaren lifer but as the defending world champion who banished his doubters.<\/p>\n

McLaren looks the same in 2026, but keeping up its title-winning momentum will be harder this year than it\u2019s ever been before.<\/p>\n

3-Peat?! – McLaren unveil 2026 livery | 00:38<\/p>\n

CAN PIASTRI\u2019S STEEP TRAJECTORY CONTINUE?<\/p>\n

Piastri\u2019s career has been on an impressive trajectory from the moment he made his Formula 1 debut.<\/p>\n

He pushed Norris hard on qualifying pace in his first season, and he was the sport\u2019s highest scorer during the European rounds in his second campaign.<\/p>\n

Last year he was closer to a complete package, with only the messy run of races in the Americas late in the season costing him the title.<\/p>\n

That he was in title contention at all with the more experienced Norris already exceeded the expectations of many observers, with consensus landing on the Aussie likely needing four years before being ready to take the championship all the way.<\/p>\n

If he takes a step of similar size this season, there\u2019ll be no doubting his championship credentials.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to come back with [determination and passion and focus] every season,\u201d he said. \u201cLast season wasn\u2019t the final result I wanted obviously, but it was nice to go into the off-season and reflect on just last year as a whole.<\/p>\n

Get all the latest motorsport news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!! <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe step in performance was more about putting a lot of the learning and tools from my first two years in F1 together much more often.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at my rookie season in 2023, qualifying was probably better than a lot of my races. In 2024 it was the opposite. In 2025 I felt the majority of the time I was able to be strong in both critical areas of the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to repeat that is obviously the aim, and I think I\u2019ve proven to myself once now that I can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren CEO Zak Brown said McLaren had a role to play in keeping the \u201cvery focused\u201d Australian on his steeply positive trajectory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke with him a lot over the winter break,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt was all about creating the best environment for him, what we need to do to continue to support him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in a good place physically \u2014 very fit, excited, ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s now going into his fourth year. Lando has a lot more grands prix than he does. If you look at the development of Lando over that time, Oscar\u2019s on a similar trajectory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve all spent a bunch of time on the sim and are very focused on how to best drive these race cars, because they are a different beast from what they have historically raced.\u201d<\/p>\n

That different beast is what will decide if Piastri\u2019s momentum is maintained or halted.<\/p>\n

Whereas momentum looked practically effortless for the Melburnian over the last three seasons as he pieced together the elements of his game, his entire F1 career has taken place in the ground-effect era. This year he\u2019ll have a very different driving style to contend with as he seeks to keep the pressure on his rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year it was very, very specific things you wanted to improve,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe cars stayed more or less the same; it was things like how you improve this last little bit in qualifying, how you do race starts slightly better, how you make those incremental gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year that same amount of effort is being focused on: how do I actually do a race start? The magnitude of things is so much bigger. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s now how you can apply that to very different cars and very different regulations. That\u2019s the biggest thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve only got a finite amount of time, a finite amount of energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it\u2019s been reallocating that time and energy onto more important things, because that last little bit in qualifying is not very useful to try and chase if you don\u2019t have a better understanding of how to get the lap time out of the car in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve got a good baseline or blueprint how to make effective changes, it\u2019s now just identifying what the critical changes are going to be for this year, which we kind of got a first read on in Barcelona, and it will definitely develop in Bahrain.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be up to Piastri to prove he can maintain the momentum this year, because Norris might get his for free.<\/p>\n

Cadillac F1 reveal 1st Livery for 2026 | 00:39<\/p>\n

CAN NORRIS BECOME BRITON\u2019S SECOND BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPION?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s long been clear that Norris is a confidence driver. While obviously intrinsically quick in both qualifying and race trim, he\u2019s at his best when he\u2019s been able to generate momentum \u2014 see the Americas leg of grands prix at the end of last season, when he was able to rise and put a dagger into the heart of Piastri\u2019s title ambitions.<\/p>\n

There can be no greater injection of confidence than the world championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy motivation to win is exactly the same,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anything, I think I just have more confidence, because I\u2019m very much a guy who has to see something to believe it, especially when it\u2019s been anything to do with me.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid I believe I could be on pole for the first time or win a race? When I\u2019ve done it, then I\u2019ve gone \u2018I can do it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just that Norris now believes he\u2019s capable of winning a world championship. He now also knows the path there \u2014 he understands the pressure of competing for the title, the difficulty of bouncing back from defeat and the energy required to sustain the momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly got better at a lot of things last year, just on mental preparation and a mental state, dealing with the good times and bad times and all of them in between,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s quite clear that I have a different mentality and a different approach to, say, what Max [Verstappen] has \u2014 good or bad, you decide. There\u2019s a lot of things that I still admire in Max, and I wish I had a little bit more of that here and there, but I\u2019m still always trying to improve on my things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there are still areas where I\u2019m not at the level I need to be. It\u2019s still a good level, but when you\u2019re fighting these guys, you need to be close to perfection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still plenty of things I want to work on and I want to be better on, but the baseline level of where I\u2019m at now is already pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understanding that he still has improvements to make to enter the next tier of championship is part of what will spur Norris on this season. Whereas some athletes who reach the summit of their discipline find it hard to remain motivated, the Briton still sees a path ahead of him, even if he\u2019s found an inner peace with having achieved his life\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel any different coming into this season,\u201d he said. \u201cI still feel like I just want to go out and win. I feel like that\u2019s just my baseline feeling consistently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly hasn\u2019t taken away any ambition or desire to want to do it again or to come into this season and not care about it. That\u2019s certainly not how I\u2019ve pictured everything and seen everything. If anything, I enjoyed last year a lot, and of course I want to do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just more that at the end of the day, if I don\u2019t achieve anything again, I always have something that I\u2019m very proud about and I know is a huge achievement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly have to find my own way and not disregard what other people have done in the past but understand what is always going to motivate me.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of my motivation isn\u2019t just picturing me on the top of the podium and holding the trophy; a lot of it is being with the team and allowing them to have the trophies and party and celebrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy motivation is just as high to try and win again and do my team proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes confident in new W17 Challenger | 01:30<\/p>\n

CAN MCLAREN DESIGN ANOTHER TITLE WINNER?<\/p>\n

McLaren faces a unique disadvantage but enjoys one potentially important advantage in swinging the new rules in its favour.<\/p>\n

The first is the sport\u2019s equalisation rules, which give the championship winner the least amount of time in the wind tunnel. McLaren, therefore, had the least amount of development time of any team in the lead-up to this season.<\/p>\n

The regulations calculate the development allowance sliding scale based on seventh in the championship. The below data has been reconfigured to show McLaren with the baseline development allowance for the sake of comparison.<\/p>\n

Development allowance, second half of 2025<\/p>\n

1. McLaren: 100.0 per cent<\/p>\n

2. Mercedes: 107.1 per cent<\/p>\n

4. Ferrari: 121.4 per cent<\/p>\n

3. Red Bull Racing: 114.3 per cent<\/p>\n

5. Williams: 128.6 per cent<\/p>\n

8. Haas: 150.0 per cent<\/p>\n

6. Racing Bulls: 135.7 per cent<\/p>\n

7. Aston Martin: 142.9 per cent<\/p>\n

9. Sauber: 157.1 per cent<\/p>\n

10. Alpine: 164.3 per cent<\/p>\n

11. Cadillac: 164.3 per cent<\/p>\n

The order of the teams reset into championship finishing order on 1 January and will remain in that order until the middle of the season. <\/p>\n

Despite the above, McLaren\u2019s advantage is that its gamble on a fresh design for last year paid off, and it enjoyed a healthy margin over the field for enough of the year that it won the constructors title with record-equalling speed and eventually clinched the drivers championship too.<\/p>\n

That meant it could switch focus to the 2026 car earlier than it might otherwise have done, which should stand it in good stead this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got good confidence the team is going to produce a good car,\u201d Norris said. \u201cThey started early last year having \u2026 a good amount of people focusing on this year\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we in a perfect place? There are always things you wish you could do better, but also I won the championship by two points, so was I happy that we brought that last upgrade, that last little addition at one of the tracks? Did it potentially give me one position and two points? Then I\u2019d probably say yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t win in every situation, but I certainly believe in my team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won the last two constructors championships for a reason \u2014 apart from the drivers. They did a good job. I think that\u2019s an important thing, that we all believe as a team that we can continue our very strong results that we\u2019ve had over the last two years into a completely new regulation change.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we also see that there\u2019s going to be people just as quick as us and potentially quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes is one counterexample, however. The German marque stopped developing its 2021 car earlier than championship rival Red Bull Racing so it could focus on the 2022 regulation changes, but it ended up down a dead-end while Red Bull Racing entered a new era of domination.<\/p>\n

But so far McLaren feels confident that it\u2019s at least in the ballpark.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I would say is we feel like we\u2019ll be competitive,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThe top four teams all seem very competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very early days, but the indication\u2019s that we will be will be strong, but I think it would be premature to make any predictions beyond an initial three days of testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first two days we lacked some mileage. We had some little niggles \u2026 just typical shakedown things \u2014 a thing or two that needed to be fitted a little bit differently, including our driver, Oscar, one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he first went out he wasn\u2019t happy with the seating position, so exactly what you\u2019d expect out of the shakedown.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think we\u2019re more in understanding the car still, and then we\u2019ll attack the development from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously things will start to become a little bit clear over the next two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next fortnight, then, could be crucial in deciding whether McLaren can fulfil the promise of championship dynasty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren has a tradition of retaining its championship-winning liveries, so when the covers came off its 2026 challenger,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[1724,64,63,936,937,230975,240640,240645,154479,207074,82615,16210,24122,240649,240643,59977,21779,240642,2057,817,240647,813,816,14211,1737,21772,240646,167549,240644,18923,239761,12022,214197,86307,16193,3752,240648,94262,3595,2020,85,192120,152571,240641,12000,16192,2086,9657],"class_list":["post-471567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bahrain","tag-barcelona","tag-championship-credentials","tag-championship-dynasty","tag-championship-finishing-order","tag-championship-winner","tag-confidence-driver","tag-constructors-championships","tag-constructors-titles","tag-defending-world-champion","tag-development-allowance","tag-development-time","tag-driver-line-up","tag-drivers-championship","tag-drives-constructors-championship","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-finite-amount","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-grands-prix","tag-lando-norris","tag-lap-time","tag-least-amount","tag-maiden-championship","tag-people-focusing","tag-power-unit","tag-power-unit-supply","tag-province-of-barcelona","tag-race-cars","tag-race-starts","tag-regulation-changes","tag-rookie-season","tag-season-costing","tag-seating-position","tag-southern-europe","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-title-ambitions","tag-title-winner","tag-typical-shakedown-things","tag-western-asia","tag-wind-tunnel","tag-world-championship","tag-zak-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}