McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella has acknowledged that the squad “definitely want to defend the championship” amid their best weekend of the season so far in Miami, with the Italian conceding that the papaya outfit “know we can further develop our car”.
Following a tricky start to the campaign – which, amongst other challenging moments, saw both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri fail to start the Chinese Grand Prix – McLaren hinted at more to come in Japan, where Piastri sealed their first podium of 2026 in second place.
Their fortunes improved further when the campaign resumed in Miami, with Norris winning the Sprint at the wheel of the newly-upgraded MCL40 before both drivers shared the rostrum via a P2 and P3 result in Sunday’s race.
However, when asked if he had seen enough from the team’s performance at the Miami International Autodrome to suggest that they could successfully defend both the Drivers’ and Teams’ titles, Stella exercised caution whilst admitting that this remains the target.
“I think if we now start to consider championships at the end of the season, then I think we need to be a bit careful because we are just at the fourth race,” he explained.
“We have just delivered our first upgrade, we are in Miami and McLaren looks like they traditionally have done very well in Miami, so it could be that the way we develop our cars kind of suits this circuit, so we will have to see more.
“But at the same time, because it’s only the fourth race and we have scored a good chunk of points even compared to Mercedes, we know that we can further develop our car.
“We have said already before Miami that the championship is not a sign-off, so our logic is to look at the long term, try and defend the championship, but as soon as we say that, we come back in the present and we do the right thing today because there’s really not much point in thinking so far forward, but definitely we want to defend the championship.”
Stella went on to praise championship leader Kimi Antonelli, before suggesting that McLaren are “probably the strongest pair” in terms of their driver line-up.
“I think we should really pay credit to the quality of the driving, the consistency, the speed in both a single lap in the race and overall execution. We should pay credit to what Kimi is showing and is actually delivering on track,” said Stella.
“I would have said after testing that George [Russell] was in a stronger position, which was the case until Australia, but for some reason things seem to have turned around. Once again, I think this is thanks to the good work that Kimi must be doing with his engineers and with the people around him.
“There’s always a group of people around the driver, and success comes because this synergy works. I think Kimi must be having all these conditions in place. Well done to Kimi, well done to Mercedes.
“At the same time, I think we have seen for McLaren that in Japan, with a car that wasn’t competitive yet, Oscar was in condition to fight for the win again and score a podium. Oscar, confirming a podium finish here, and Lando, one win in the Sprint and in the fight for the victory here.
“I think when we look in particular at the Constructors’ Championship, I think we are, from a driver’s point of view, probably the strongest pair. We want to capitalise on this strength that we have at McLaren, but we need to make the car a little bit faster.”
After the opening four rounds, McLaren currently sit in third place of the Teams’ Championship on 94 points, while Norris and Piastri are fourth and sixth in the Drivers’ standings with 51 and 43 points respectively.
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