McLaren and Lando Norris verdict given as Mercedes domination takes gloss off milestone

EXCLUSIVE: David Coulthard speaks to our F1 podcast Pit Lane Torque to mark McLaren’s 1,000th start.

McLaren are the defending champions in this milestone season for the team (Image: Getty)

David Coulthard has no doubt McLaren will break Mercedes’ dominance and win Grands Prix in what is a landmark year for his old team. McLaren Racing first started competing in Formula 1 60 years ago and next Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix will mark their 1,000th start in the sport.

They celebrate those milestones as the defending drivers’ and constructors’ champions after Lando Norris secured his maiden title last December. Rivals Mercedes have hit the ground running in 2026 having adapted quickest to the new regulations, but McLaren’s recovery has been swift and Norris won the Sprint race in Miami earlier this month.

And their former driver Coulthard is confident more success is on the way. “They’re 100 percent back on track,” the 13-time race winner told our F1 video podcast Pit Lane Torque. “They had a very competitive last run out after a difficult defence of the start in Australia and in China.

“But I don’t doubt that they’ll be winning Grands Prix this year. We’ll see how the development race goes, but they’ve got something that’s working and they’re continuing to keep adding to it as well.”

Racer Bruce McLaren first entered his eponymous team into an F1 race at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. He scored the outfit’s first win two years later in Belgium but was sadly killed while testing a Can-Am car at Goodwood Circuit in Sussex in June 1970. But the team lived on with business partner and friend Teddy Mayer assuming control.

David Coulthard backs his old McLaren team to get back to winning ways this year (Image: Getty)

In the decades since, eight drivers have won 13 titles representing McLaren which has won 10 constructors’ championships.
With 203 race victories, McLaren’s win percentage stands at a little over 20 percent. “Unlike boxing, where you obviously want to win all your matches, in motor racing, if you win 20 percent or less of the Grands Prix you enter, you’re considered really successful. It’s just such a competitive environment,” said Coulthard.

All but one of his 13 F1 wins were scored while representing McLaren over nine seasons between 1996 and 2004. He added: “It’s an amazing story, the McLaren story… now, it’s got to be one of the most recognisable names in motor racing. Only Ferrari can top everyone.”

The McLaren family has not owned any portion of the team or wider business since the late-1970s. But even when boss Ron Dennis had full ownership, there was always resistance to moving away from the McLaren name. Coulthard said: “It looked like it was a sort of logical step from Mercedes being an engine supplier, to being a car partnership, to then Mercedes buying McLaren.

“If that had happened, the name would have been phased out, but think Ron and Mansour [Ojjeh] resisted, as the two main shareholders at that time, to remain independent.

“They had some difficulties for a few years there, but I don’t see McLaren disappearing as a name and a brand out from Formula One, despite the fact that they, unlike Red Bull, still very much are engine customer. But they proved last year that you can still have a lot of success if you do a great job on the other side.”

CRE: https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-autosport/2211467/mclaren-100-races-monaco-gp