Lando Norris has stated McLaren must be \u201cpatient\u201d as it aims to become a consistent threat at the front of the F1 field once more.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
McLaren entered the 2026 campaign as the reigning champions but fell behind in the pecking order, with Mercedes springing out of the blocks as the fastest team.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It took until round 11 of the campaign for McLaren to return to the top step of the podium, as it won the Hungarian Grand Prix at a weekend in which it introduced a substantial car upgrade.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
McLaren is hopeful that its upgrades will allow it to fight at various other track layouts, with the package set to receive its next test at Zandvoort next month.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
However, Norris has conceded that it is unlikely to reach the heights that Mercedes enjoyed at the start of the year.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s tough because we’re never going to have an advantage over them like they’ve had over us,\u201d Norris told media including RacingNews365.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can maybe catch up to the level that they are, but then to get whatever it is, 100 points back from where I am now, it’s going to be pretty tough.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m more a guy who stays in the present and looks ahead to the future. Honestly, I feel like I’ve driven better in this half of the season than I probably did at this point last year, to a certain extent.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly I’m not leading the championship by a bigger margin Of course, I want a better car, and I would like a car that can give me more chances and give me results for the performance of driving that I feel like I’m getting out of it.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that’s F1. From the job I’m doing myself, I’m very, very happy. Of course, I wish I got more rewards from it.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
McLaren currently sit third in the standings at the halfway point of the campaign, while Norris is fifth in the drivers’ table.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Its Hungary performance sets it up for a strong second part of the year, a prospect Norris is confident about.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I still believe we can have good results this season,\u201d Norris added.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be patient, which is never an easy thing to do in the world of F1, but I still believe we can have good races.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris has stated McLaren must be \u201cpatient\u201d as it aims to become a consistent threat at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-835931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835931","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=835931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}