Why Sunday is critical for Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and McLaren

McLaren turned in a tremendous performance on Saturday. But the points are handed out on Sunday

In the FIA Press Conference Saturday at the Hungarian Grand Prix Lando Norris was asked the question on everyone’s mind. True, he had just put his MCL38 on pole position, and with teammate Oscar Piastri qualifying second McLaren managed to lock out the front row for the first time since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, when it was Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton doing the driving. Yes, McLaren has been strong all week and may have the fastest car this weekend.

But given all the team’s near-misses this season — Austria and Silverstone come to mind — just how vital is it for McLaren to convert a front-row lockout on Saturday into a win on Sunday?

The McLaren driver slowly grabbed the microphone that was lying on the couch next to him, collected his thoughts, and offered an eloquent response.

“I mean, I don’t think it’s, like, important. Every single quali is important. Every race is important,” began Norris. “So it’s not all of a sudden I need to do it and I need to prove my point. I don’t. We’ve done the best we could in every race. I think we’ve shown great pace and great opportunities.

“And I know we’ve missed out on some. We don’t need to get back into all of that stuff. But yeah, I would love to have a clean, strong weekend. From yesterday already, we were very strong in the beginning in FP2, FP3 quali now. So it would be nice, yeah, just to have a nice Turn 1 and see what happens from there.”

Norris then shifted to just how many hurdles he and the team face on Sunday.

“But I’m not expecting it. I’m expecting still a difficult race with Oscar and Max behind. But every one is important. Every time we’re trying to maximise every place, every point,” added the McLaren driver. “And yeah, the more we can try to get back on Max, the more we as a team can get on Red Bull and other constructors, the better. So no point or emphasis on trying to beat a particular someone or something. It’s just go out and do what we do because we’re doing a good job.”

Norris and McLaren have a golden opportunity on Sunday to accomplish several things. With a strong performance — perhaps indeed converting their front-row lockout into a victory — McLaren can leapfrog Ferrari and climb into second in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship, and perhaps inch closer to Red Bull at the front of the field.

But they can also offer a definitive answer to the questions that have followed them from Silverstone to Budapest. Ever since McLaren turned a potential one-two finish in the British Grand Prix into a P3/P4 finish, due to many strategic decisions that proved, in the end, to be flawed, the team has been dogged with questions regarding whether they were truly ready to fight at the front.

Piastri, who was seated alongside Norris during Saturday’s press conference, was the one facing those questions on Thursday. He outlined how the team is still learning how to fight at the front, and recounted just how far the team has come in the past calendar year.

“I mean, a few ways. I think the fact that we’re even having these opportunities in the first place is, you know, we’ve been having opportunities for the last couple of months now, let’s say, but our memory is not that short,” said Piastri on Thursday. “And, you know, it was only 12 months ago that we were finishing P3 and P4 and that was an incredible result for us. So I think we still have that.

“Of course, we can’t live off that forever and we need to appreciate that we’re in a much different position now. But also the opportunities have always been very different. And some of the circumstances have been in our control and I think we’ve been very good at analyzing that,” added Piastri. “I think a fair share of the circumstances have been out of our control as a team. So I think you know just focusing on what we need to improve for ourselves and not being caught up on the things that are out of our control, that’s a massive part of it.”

Piastri’s answer on Thursday was an emphatic reminder of the road McLaren has traveled since the start of the 2023 campaign. That season began with both Piastri and Norris at the back of the field, just fighting to stay in the race. Ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that April, Norris outlined to me that they were simply in a position to fight for points.

By the time the season wound down, they were fighting for podiums.

Now they are fighting for wins.

But fighting for wins — and securing them — are two different things. As Piastri noted trackside when speaking with Alice Powell McLaren is “trying to win” a championship this season, and Sunday gives them a golden opportunity to take a step in that direction. With Max Verstappen starting third — and Sergio Pérez set to start at the back of the field — McLaren can take a huge step closer to Red Bull on Sunday.

But they need to finish the job.

If they can convert Saturday’s tremendous result into a win on Sunday, it would move them closer to Red Bull, and answer every question they have faced over these past two weeks.

In resounding fashion.