McLaren makes major change before Dutch GP with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri handed boost

McLaren has made a major decision just days before the Dutch Grand Prix, which could benefit both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Despite winning his maiden championship in 2025, Norris currently sits fifth in the 2026 standings after 11 races, with three podiums and just one race win, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, to his name.

Team-mate Piastri also enjoyed success last season, finishing third in the championship behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Norris.

However, much like Norris, the Australian has struggled to replicate the form of last season and starts Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix seventh in the standings and without a race win this term.

But McLaren’s decision to add further upgrades to the MCL40, after already fitting an upgrade package before the Hungarian Grand Prix, could hugely benefit both drivers.

McLaren updated the floor and other aerodynamic parts before the Hungary race, which seemingly helped Norris negotiate the high-downforce circuit and notch his first win of the season.

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McLaren makes major decision before Dutch GP

Further upgrades will be introduced before the Zandvoort race to “complete the package introduced in Hungary”.

McLaren confirmed a new rear wing and new rear brake ducts will be fitted, with the team’s technical director for applied engineering Neil Houldey explaining how the updates could help Piastri and Norris in the Netherlands.

“We head into the Zandvoort weekend after finishing the final race before the shutdown with a win and a strong performance, but we are very aware of how close the competition is and how important reliability will be,” Houldey explained.

“We have learned a lot in the first part of the season about how this car needs to be driven to extract performance and on containing the issues we faced earlier in the year.

“We have also worked hard as a team on continued development with some parts available this weekend focusing on the rear side, to complete the package introduced in Hungary with a new rear wing and new rear brake ducts, but we know other teams will bring developments too.

“Therefore, it will be another tough event, and our focus is on getting everything we can out of the car. If we execute well, we can put ourselves in the fight with the leading teams.

“We are moving into an extremely demanding second half of the season and with 12 races still to come, the team’s attention remains firmly on our own development and performance as we build on the work completed in the first half of the season to target greater consistency in extracting performance from the MCL40.”

McLaren are currently third in the Constructors’ Championship on 220 points, 159 points behind Mercedes and 87 adrift of Ferrari.