McLaren drivers still sure their MCL40 is a winner

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris both believe McLaren has the potential to be a consistent Formula 1 winner with its MCL40 race car this season, despite Mercedes’ early dominance.

Kimi Antonelli and George Russell have locked out the front row at all three races so far this season, and took one-two finishes in the opening two rounds prior to the Japanese Grand Prix. Piastri helped upset that run with second place behind Antonelli at Suzuka, and the Australian believes McLaren can improve its car to be a race winner as the year progresses.

“I’m confident in this team that we’ll be back fighting consistently for wins this season,” Piastri said in an interview with the McLaren website. “In Round 3, while there was still a gap at the end, we were able to push the boundaries of our initial expectations and, without the safety car, could have genuinely been in contention for the win.

“We have a lot of work to do to be back at the front consistently, but closing the gap to Mercedes and out-developing the field is something that’s within our control. This team have proven how we’re able to turn things around, and we’re starting in a stronger position than we have in previous examples of this, such as 2024.

“I have complete trust that the team will do everything they can to get us there and I am genuinely excited to see what we can achieve.”

Both drivers have been taking part in a Pirelli tire test at the Nurburgring alongside Mercedes this week, and Piastri’s view is backed up by defending champion Norris, who believes he is still in with a realistic chance of fighting to defend his title.

“I think we can have a good season, even if we’re not where we want to be right now,” Norris said. “And although we haven’t started the season where we want to be, we still want to push hard for the championship – this isn’t a case of giving up and focusing on next year. I’m not sure if that approach ever really works.

"There’s plenty of examples where we’ve not quite been where we want to be at the start of the year, but have ended up in a much stronger position by the end – 2023, 2024 and so on – and we’re a stronger team now than we were then. We’ve been there, done it, learned from it and I trust that this team knows how to do it again. Plenty of hard work ahead, but we’re ready for it.”