- Jolyon Palmer says Lando Norris is “chuffed” to be champion, given McLaren’s troubled 2026 start.
- Both McLaren drivers failed to start in China, marking the team’s worst run in decades.
- Palmer still backs McLaren to recover, with the Miami Grand Prix as the key turning point.
Lando Norris is “chuffed to be a champion.” That is how F1 pundit Jolyon Palmer put it on the F1 Nation podcast. And given what has happened to McLaren in 2026, it is hard to argue with him.
The 2025 world title looks better with every passing weekend.
McLaren has had a disastrous start to the new season. Oscar Piastri crashed before the Australian Grand Prix. Then, in China, both Norris and Piastri failed to start the race due to separate electrical issues. It was the first time since the 2005 United States Grand Prix that both McLaren drivers did not start a race.
Palmer said Norris has every reason to feel fortunate.
The title that almost wasn’t
The road to the 2025 championship was not easy for Lando Norris.
The Briton trailed teammate Piastri by 34 points mid-season. Then Max Verstappen mounted a late charge. McLaren boss Zak Brown compared Verstappen’s comeback to a horror movie character that keeps coming back.
The title fight went down to the final race in Abu Dhabi.
Norris needed only a podium finish. He held his nerve and delivered. It was McLaren’s first drivers’ title since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Norris finished the season with seven wins and 18 podiums.
Palmer reflected on just how valuable that title now looks.
Palmer: ‘Those two had their golden shot’
On the F1 Nation podcast, host Tom Clarkson asked whether Norris might feel relieved to have won the title when he did. Palmer did not hold back.
“I would be very, very happy that I am walking around as a Formula 1 world champion,” he said. “It’s everything we said last year, isn’t it? Those two that hadn’t won a title have their golden shot, and you know it was always going to be a really open season this year, where, you know, they can’t guarantee future success.”
The numbers tell a grim story for McLaren in 2026. Norris sits sixth in the drivers’ standings with 15 points. Piastri is 12th with just three points, earned from the Shanghai Sprint.
The China disaster had a painful historical footnote. Before Piastri, the last McLaren driver to have two consecutive Did Not Starts was the team’s founder himself, Bruce McLaren, and that was back in 1969.
And this is why Palmer believes Norris would feel extremely lucky to have won the title last year.
“So I think Lando’s chuffed to be a champion. I still think he’s got a positive outlook on life, even though McLaren are not where they want to be.”
The faith in McLaren’s ability to recover
Palmer did not write McLaren off.
“McLaren still has confidence that they’re going to turn this around,” he said. “They have had the best development rate of any team in Formula 1 in the last few years. They will do that again. I am confident in their ability to do the same.”
The history backs that confidence. McLaren went from the back of the pack in 2023 to winning back-to-back Constructors’ Championships in 2024 and 2025.
Palmer also laid out a path forward. “Things like not starting in China is a needless throwaway of points. But if they can pick up fifth places, maybe a podium here, they can stay in the hunt much like Max last year.”
When pushed on whether he believed the McLaren duo remained genuine title contenders, Palmer offered a measured but honest verdict.
“I wouldn’t rule them out,” he added. “Obviously, it’s going to seem ridiculous because they’re carrying a big deficit. But like Hinch already said, Miami will be the first race where we can say yes or no. Are they capable of turning it around?”
Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft had already said that a major McLaren upgrade could arrive for Miami. He noted there are known aerodynamic areas where the team believes it can do better.
For now, all eyes are on Miami.
