The No. 1 Comes With a Fight
Lando Norris arrived in 2026 as the reigning world champion, the No. 1 fixed to the nose of his McLaren and the burden of a title defence riding with it. Seven rounds in, that defence looks nothing like the smooth procession many expected after the team’s dominant 2025 campaign.
The numbers tell the blunt version of the story. After the Barcelona round, Norris sits on 73 points and team-mate Oscar Piastri on 68. Both are a long way behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, whose Mercedes has carried him to 156. For a driver wearing the crown, the gap is uncomfortable, and McLaren as a whole has felt the change in the wind.
A Constructors’ Table That Has Shifted
Last season McLaren set the pace. This season they are scrapping for the podium positions in the constructors’ standings rather than sitting comfortably at the top of them. Mercedes have moved clear, Ferrari have found consistency, and the papaya cars have slipped to third.
| Pos | Constructor | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercedes | 262 |
| 2 | Ferrari | 190 |
| 3 | McLaren | 141 |
| 4 | Red Bull | 89 |
McLaren’s 141 is the combined work of Norris and Piastri, 73 and 68 respectively. It is a respectable haul on its own terms, but it leaves the team 121 points adrift of Mercedes and trailing Ferrari too. A year ago, that order would have looked unthinkable.
How the Deficit Was Built
Part of the gap is the product of races that simply went wrong. Piastri crashed before the start of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, an early hit to the team’s points tally and momentum. Then came the Chinese Grand Prix, where McLaren suffered a double non-start, both cars failing to take the grid. Two weekends, a heap of lost opportunity, and a rival in Mercedes that has rarely missed.
For a championship-winning operation, those are the kinds of weekends that haunt the standings for months. They explain why a car that can still fight for victories is nonetheless looking up at two rivals in the table.
The Bright Spots
It has not all been damage limitation. At the Miami Grand Prix, Norris converted sprint pole into a race victory, beating Piastri and Charles Leclerc to remind the field that the champion and his machine remain a serious threat when the weekend clicks together. The sprint format played to his strengths, and he made the most of it.
Miami was the kind of result McLaren need more of: a clean conversion of raw pace into maximum points, with both drivers near the front. It was also a useful answer to the doubts that had built up over the difficult opening rounds.
A Barcelona Podium for the History Books
Barcelona, Round 7, delivered a moment that transcended the championship arithmetic. Norris took third, and in doing so completed the first all-British podium in Formula 1 since the 1968 United States Grand Prix. Alongside Norris stood Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, three British drivers sharing the rostrum for the first time in well over half a century.
For Norris, the result was both a points boost and a reminder that the car has the legs to reach the podium even on a weekend where outright victory was beyond reach. For the wider sport, it was a rare alignment of names and nations that will be remembered long after this season’s title is settled.
The Mercedes resurgence has been central to that British storyline. Russell has been chasing a clean run of weekends, while Antonelli’s rise has reshaped the front of the field. You can read more on Russell’s push for a smooth Barcelona weekend and on how Antonelli described Barcelona as tricky as Mercedes searched for a clean answer.
What the Numbers Mean for Norris
At 73 points, Norris is the leading McLaren driver, but only by five over Piastri. The intra-team battle remains alive, and the pair will continue to take points off one another even as both try to close the gap to the front. That dynamic has been a recurring theme of McLaren’s recent seasons, and it is no less present now that one of them carries the No. 1.
- Norris: 73 points, reigning champion, running the No. 1.
- Piastri: 68 points, five behind his team-mate.
- Antonelli: 156 points, leading the championship for Mercedes.
The mountain Norris must climb is steep. Antonelli’s lead of more than 80 points over the McLaren pair is the sort of margin that demands a long, sustained run of strong results to erode. For now, the champion is in recovery mode rather than control. Our look at how McLaren measured up to Mercedes after Barcelona practice sets out where the team’s pace currently stands.
Next Stop: Austria
The season rolls on to the Austrian Grand Prix on 28 June. The short, sharp Red Bull Ring rewards a balanced car and clean execution, exactly the combination McLaren have struggled to string together with the reliability of their rivals. For Norris, it is another chance to turn flashes of speed, like Miami, into the kind of consistency that championships are built on.
The title defence has been bumpy, no question. But with race wins still within reach and a podium streak that has already written its way into the record books, the champion’s season is far from a write-off. The work now is to make weekends like Miami and Barcelona the rule rather than the exception.
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