TEAM PREVIEW: McLaren – All you need to know about the team ahead of the 2026 F1 season

After their continued resurgence in 2024, McLaren became a force to be reckoned with during the 2025 season, ending the campaign with a second consecutive Teams’ Championship – which they wrapped up with six rounds to spare – as well as their first Drivers’ Championship in 17 years courtesy of Lando Norris. Can they carry that momentum through into 2026? Here’s the lowdown on the squad ahead of the new season…

Drivers for 2026

Lando Norris #1: 1 World Championship, 11 Grand Prix wins, 44 podiums, 1430 points, 152 starts
Oscar Piastri #81: 9 Grand Prix wins, 26 podiums, 799 points, 70 starts

As is the case with much of the grid, McLaren will field an unchanged line-up in 2026 – with the significant change being that one of them arrives into the new season as a reigning World Champion for the first time.

That is of course Norris, who ended Max Verstappen’s stint at the top after beating the Dutchman to the crown by just two points. This also means that the Briton has opted to run the number 1 on his car in the season ahead, having previously used number 4.

On the other side of the garage is Oscar Piastri, who ended 2025 in third place of the championship despite leading for much of the campaign. The Australian looked in commanding form during those early stages, collecting seven Grand Prix victories across the opening 15 rounds.

While his second half of the season proved more challenging – and resulted in both Norris and Verstappen overtaking him in the standings – Piastri looked in good form during the final two races and will be hoping to come back stronger this time around.

How did McLaren do in 2025?

As touched on above, the promise shown by McLaren as 2024 progressed was cemented from the off in 2025, meaning that the squad were able to quickly build a sizeable lead over their rivals in the Teams’ Championship.

Prior to the summer break, the Woking-based outfit had taken 11 victories from 14 rounds, with Piastri responsible for six of those as he led the way in the Drivers’ Standings. The resurgence of Verstappen and Red Bull, however, slightly dented their momentum in the second half.

This also proved to be a particularly tough stage of the campaign for Piastri, who finished off the podium for six consecutive rounds – though he did still help the squad to seal the Teams’ title in Singapore. In contrast, Norris embarked on something of a comeback, scoring back-to-back wins in Mexico and Sao Paulo which saw him retake the championship lead in the former.

Despite both drivers remaining in title contention through to the end, McLaren still faced some difficult moments across the final rounds, including a double disqualification in Las Vegas and the loss of a possible victory in Qatar – a weekend in which Piastri looked to have bounced back from his tricky spell – owing to a strategy misfire.

Verstappen, meanwhile, was continuing to add to his tally of wins, bringing himself right back into the championship fight ahead of the Abu Dhabi season finale. Norris ultimately did enough to fend off the Dutchman and clinch a maiden title, while Piastri had to settle for third with a 13-point deficit to his team mate.

History

Being the second-oldest team in Formula 1 – with their number of race starts beaten only by Ferrari – McLaren hold an illustrious history. After founding the team in 1963, Bruce McLaren went on to take the squad’s debut championship win at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix.

Following McLaren’s tragic death in a testing crash at Goodwood in 1970, the team raced on in his honour and achieved great success in the years that followed. Emerson Fittipaldi clinched the outfit’s maiden Drivers’ Championship in 1974 – a season in which they also took the Teams’ Championship for the first time – while the 1980s and 1990s brought further titles.

McLaren had a particularly dominant campaign in 1988, which saw them win 15 out of 16 races – but this era also saw tensions emerge at the team amid a fierce rivalry between team mates Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.

Having claimed both titles in 2025 – for the first time since 1998 – McLaren have now accumulated a total of 10 Teams’ Championships and 13 Drivers’ crowns.

Greatest achievement

As previously mentioned, McLaren are one of the most decorated F1 constructors of all-time – meaning that selecting just one greatest achievement is a difficult task.

Looking at their more recent history, the squad’s recovery from the challenges they faced in the mid-2010s has undoubtedly been impressive. Ten years on from their particularly troubled 2015 season – in which they were second from last in the Teams’ Standings – they have finally got back on top, scoring both titles in 2025.

But, on paper, that legendary 1988 campaign is hard to ignore as one of McLaren’s most remarkable moments, where the combination of their A-list driver line-up and the Honda-powered MP4/4 led to unprecedented levels of success. The team’s win percentage of 93.8% is still one of the highest ever recorded during a single season.

One key goal for 2026

Perhaps one of the most obvious targets for McLaren in 2026 will simply be to carry through their championship-winning form of last season.

Amid the introduction of new technical regulations, however, they will face the additional challenge of trying to do this whilst also navigating the rules reset. The unknowns over the pecking order mean that the squad cannot rest on their laurels and will have to be ready to keep their rivals at bay.

Arguably a key focus in doing this will be to iron out the occasional errors that crept in during the 2025 campaign – mistakes that their competitors were ultimately ready to capitalise on. Both Team Principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown have stressed that the team’s famous ‘papaya rules’ – an approach that focuses on fair treatment of both drivers – are set to remain in place.

However, the methodology sometimes came in for external criticism on the occasions where it did not work out, and Brown acknowledged that the squad will take “lots of learnings” from the times where mistakes were made.

Should the team finetune this strategy, it could potentially strengthen their title defence further – as well as ensuring that the seemingly straightforward relationship between Norris and Piastri remains trouble-free should the pair again go toe-to-toe for the championship.