McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are in a “tough moment” after a difficult start to the 2026 season, but he believes both drivers have the mindset to recover.
The reigning two-time constructors’ champions have managed just one race result from a possible four so far, with Norris’s fifth place at the season opener in Australia the only finish. Piastri crashed out before the race at his home Australian Grand Prix, and both McLaren cars failed to start the Chinese Grand Prix due to separate electrical issues with their power units.
Those problems have left McLaren third in the constructors’ standings, well behind early pacesetters Mercedes and Ferrari. In the drivers’ standings Norris sits sixth on 15 points, while Piastri is 12th with three points collected from the Shanghai Sprint.
“It is a tough moment, that’s for sure,” Stella said when asked about managing the drivers. He noted the difficulty for Piastri, who has not been able to start a race this season, but added that conversations with both drivers after Shanghai showed they remain “quite positive.”
Stella credited the culture and “winner’s mindset” McLaren developed since 2023 for helping them process setbacks. “Just a positive attitude, which focuses us on what we can control. In this case [in China], there wasn’t much we could have controlled, so we just take any possible learning and we go again,” he said.
He pointed to lessons from last season that helped the team become champions, saying the real tests were moments such as the Qatar strategy error and the Vegas disqualification, when the team withstood difficulties and grew stronger. “This is part of the same journey, which is the day in which you have to withstand the difficulty, you have to process it and you have to use it to become even more of a worthwhile champion in the future,” Stella added.
Constructors’ Championship – Top 5
1) Mercedes – 98 points
2) Ferrari – 67 points
3) McLaren – 18 points
4) Haas – 17 points
5) Red Bull – 12 points
Stella acknowledged the immediate consequence of the double DNS in Shanghai was lost championship points; McLaren sit about 80 points behind leaders Mercedes after the Silver Arrows delivered a second successive one-two finish. McLaren and Red Bull have trailed Mercedes and Ferrari on raw pace in the first two rounds, and the team say there is scope to extract more from their Mercedes power unit as well as improve the MCL40 aerodynamically.
On Sky Sports’ The F1 Show podcast, commentator David Croft said the Miami Grand Prix (May 1-3) could be pivotal for McLaren if a planned upgrade arrives. Croft warned that two separate issues preventing cars from starting in Shanghai is worrying and underlined the fragility shown by several teams in the race weekend. “A lot of people are struggling; four cars didn’t get off the line in Shanghai and that’s not what we want to see,” he said.
Croft added that McLaren know an update is coming that could address competitiveness gaps with Mercedes, noting it is not solely a power issue but also aerodynamic. “Watch out in Miami,” he said, suggesting the upgrade could make Miami important for McLaren’s recovery.
Formula 1 next heads to the Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix on March 27-29, with live coverage on Sky Sports F1.