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McLaren spent the first half of 2026 looking like last year’s champion team in name only. The wins dried up, the new car took time to come alive and even as Lando Norris kept putting points on the board, the gap to Kimi Antonelli kept growing. Then Hungary happened, Zandvoort followed, and two weeks was all it took to change the mood of the season. Norris has now won the last two grands prix and sits fourth in the standings at 159 points, 83 behind Antonelli and 24 behind Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who are tied at 183. That is still a mountain for Norris and McLaren to climb, but it is no longer out of the question. McLaren: True Momentum or Just a Blip? McLaren is third in the constructors’ championship with 263 points, 75 behind Ferrari and 162 behind Mercedes. Another strong weekend at Monza would not crown anyone, but it would force the two teams ahead to treat McLaren as a Sunday problem rather than a midfield inconvenience. Andrea Stella is not getting carried away and he shouldn’t. Hungary and Zandvoort asked for medium-speed grip, while Monza asks for straight-line speed, low drag and energy management. “The next race will be in Monza, and if we think about the demands of Zandvoort and Hungary, and then think about the demands of Monza, we are in a completely different regime,” Stella said after the Norris victory at the Dutch Grand Prix. Commentator James Hinchcliffe made the same point in plainer language this week: Monza is the race that shows whether Norris actually has a title shot, or whether the last two weekends were simply the right tracks at the right time. Related: Lando Norris ‘giving everything I can’ to McLaren Why Smart Money is on Lando Norris’ Surge The driver is the part McLaren can trust. After Zandvoort, Norris is more assertive than he was even during last year’s title run and the pass on Antonelli at Turn 1 was the example Stella kept coming back to. “Lando is driving and operating at a very high level, in absolute sense, in relation to a Formula 1 world champion,” Stella said. “He’s driving at the level of a world champion.” Russell called McLaren the best team on the grid right now and Antonelli admitted Mercedes no longer had the fastest car. When the championship leader and his teammate are saying that out loud, the comeback is real. Related: Lando Norris signs contract extension with F1’s McLaren How Does Oscar Piastri Fit Into the McLaren Surge? The catch is sitting on the other side of the garage. Oscar Piastri is seventh with 104 points, 55 behind Norris, and while the one-lap gap between them is tiny, the Sunday gap is not. Piastri finished second in Japan and third in Miami, but he has not won all year. He started third in Hungary and finished nowhere, then started fourth at Zandvoort, made a sharp move on Russell, lost the place at the first stop and came home sixth, more than 30 seconds behind his teammate. Stella has said Piastri needs to adapt when grip is low and both sides say there is no tension within the team. “Last year, we had seen already with Oscar that, from a technical driving point of view, when the car has this low level of grip, like we saw last year for instance in Mexico or in Austin,” Stella said. “He needs to adapt the way he drives, the way he thinks, the driving, his expectations.” The standings still tell a clear story. McLaren’s second wind is being driven by one car more than two. That split matters this weekend. Related: McLaren extends Oscar Piastri’s contract through 2026 Monza is Where McLaren Can Make Championship Chase More Interesting With standings leader Antonelli starting from the back after a power-unit change and Ferrari bringing an engine upgrade to its home race, Norris and McLaren have a huge opportunity this weekend. If Norris is in the fight again and Piastri is only collecting mid-pack points, McLaren can still make noise without cashing the full constructors’ swing it needs to hunt Ferrari. Monza is the test Stella wanted. Norris has the momentum and the car has to prove it can travel. If it does, the title fight is no longer Mercedes and Ferrari with McLaren lurking. There are three teams vying for all the glory and the reigning champion is right back in it. Read More: 5 Storylines to Watch at the 2026 Italian Grand Prix