Lando Norris has admitted that he wants to remain \u201cpatient before I get too excited\u201d about McLaren\u2019s new upgrades for the Hungarian Grand Prix, which should help them close the gap to the frontrunners.<\/p>\n
The reigning World Champion has endured a rollercoaster first half of the 2026 season, with reliability issues coming to a head last time out at Spa-Francorchamps where Norris<\/a> had to take a 10-place grid penalty<\/a> for replacing a variety of power unit components.<\/p>\n It coincided with a particularly strong weekend for the Briton as he posted the third fastest time in Qualifying<\/a> and demonstrated fantastic pace on his way to finishing P7, so much so that he believed he could have finished on the podium<\/a> if it wasn\u2019t for the penalty.<\/p>\n McLaren<\/a> are hopeful that they can extract similar performance at the Hungaroring<\/a>, where they secured 1-2 finishes in the previous two seasons. They may not be tipped to repeat that achievement in 2026, but their updated floor and other aerodynamic parts should work well at the high-downforce circuit.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say this upgrade is probably the biggest of the year by quite a long way, so we\u2019re hoping it\u2019s going to bring us a step [forward],\u201d said Norris. \u201cThere\u2019s been a couple of bits this year that haven\u2019t worked exactly the same as we\u2019ve expected or as we wanted, so I\u2019m just being patient before I get too excited over anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Elaborating on what he\u2019s expecting from the upgrade, he explained: \u201cMore grip, a faster car I hope. Let\u2019s just wait and see first. Obviously hoping that it just allows us to get more pace out of the car and limit some of the issues that we have currently, or at least make them a little bit less.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m confident we can still be quick. I think there have been many races this year where we\u2019ve been quick. Spa was probably one of the first alongside Miami where I think we generally seemed pretty decent, and actually the pace was pretty strong even compared to the frontrunners, or the quickest.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere we\u2019re clearly behind is still just Qualifying \u2013 there\u2019s no chance we\u2019re getting close to going four-tenths quicker in Qualifying, or half a second quicker. I think there are bits on both sides that need to improve but I certainly hope the upgrade can give us a little bit of a jump.\u201d<\/p>\n