Can Lando Norris defend his F1 title? Here’s what the Miami GP will tell us about McLaren’s chances

Tweaks to the regulations made in the break, primarily to promote flat-out driving in qualifying and reduce dramatic in-race closing speeds and the risk of massive crashes like Ollie Bearman’s in Japan, will debut in the cut-and-thrust world of a sprint weekend, in the fifth iteration of the temporary 19-turn street circuit, configured around the 60,000-capacity Hard Rock Stadium, which plays host to the paddock.

Such are the new challenges and protocols, the only practice session of the weekend on Friday has been extended by half an hour. Yet the big question is: how much have the chief protagonists reeled in frontrunners Mercedes? If at all?

McLaren driver Lando Norris at the Miami International Autodrome (PA)

"It's too impossible to compare," Norris said, when discussing the experience of driving previous generations compared to the cars in 2026. "If you ask me now, do I still enjoy the older cars more? Yes. I find it hard for anyone to say they enjoy driving these cars as much as previous generations ... I think it's obviously possible [that someone else could feel that way].

"But it's still our job to adapt to these cars we have now. They're good in different ways. They should be getting better over time. It's tough to go that much further, honestly. I think when you start to cover up some problems you also reveal other issues, so there's only so much you can do with the rules that you have to keep things.

“I think we would all love more in the direction that they've gone, but some of those are more hardware, bigger things. Those are hard things to change in the middle of a season when you have one team dominating and doing very well and other teams struggling.

"So it's difficult from that end to do a lot more but they've moved things in the right direction, especially for qualifying. The race really isn't going to be that different. Some things are not going to change that much. Qualifying should be a bit more flat-out qualifying style laps, which is a nice thing, it's what we wanted as drivers.”

Lando Norris talks to the media during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Miami (Getty)

McLaren, despite their uninspiring start to their title defence, are decidedly chirpy. Oscar Piastri failed to start his home race in Melbourne. Both Norris and Piastri failed to start in China. The Briton, the reigning world champion, is yet to register a podium and already trails championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 47 points.

Yet they were notably forthcoming in opening up their state-of-the-art Woking HQ last week to The Independent and other members of the media. Everybody, from the academy boss and chief designer to the star drivers and Brown, was put up for press conferences. But it was team principal Andrea Stella who revealed why McLaren is unperturbed by their poor start: they are set to bring a “completely new car” to Miami and beyond.

“That [a new car] was always the idea,” said the Italian. “Especially from an aerodynamic upgrades point of view… so we can keep up with this plan.

"Obviously, the fact that the calendar has been changed helped. I'm sure it helped all the other teams, who could work more streamlined towards upgrading the car rather than being busy with racing.

Norris won his first F1 race in Miami in 2024 (Getty)

“But I could say overall that, across Miami and [next race] Canada, we will see an entirely new MCL40.

“I would like to stress that this is what I would expect of most of our competitors so [it is] not necessarily going to be a shift in the pecking order… it will be effectively just a check who has been able to add more performance within the same time frame.”

Despite Stella playing it down, McLaren offer the most exciting route to a title battle beyond Antonelli and George Russell’s intra-team tilt. Unlike Ferrari and Red Bull’s in-house projects, they use a Mercedes engine – clearly the best on the grid – and have the know-how of recent constructors’ triumphs. Miami, therefore, represents a line in the sand: judge their season from now.

Kimi Antonelli (right) and George Russell (left) lead the way for Mercedes early on this season (Getty)

Of course, we won’t know more until the cars are unveiled for the first time prior to FP1 on Friday. Mercedes have set an impressive early benchmark in this new era, but McLaren are hopeful they can be caught. Their performance technical director, Mark Temple, said as much a fortnight ago, telling the F1 Nation podcast: “Absolutely they [Mercedes] are beatable. Hopefully, we can be the ones who are able to beat them.

“They're certainly not invincible, that's for sure."

If McLaren do not haul in some of the deficit to Mercedes in Miami, Norris can wave goodbye to a potential title defence. Yet if the gap has closed, even slightly, the performance curve should be heading in a papaya direction. Norris memorably claimed his first F1 victory in Miami two years ago; a return to the top this weekend would raise the stakes at the front-of-the-grid in these intriguing early stages of F1’s new chapter.