MCLAREN boss Zak Brown believes a “highly motivated” Lando Norris’s confidence is sky high as the British driver bids to defend his Formula One World Championship.

Norris saw off team-mate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to land his maiden title at last season’s finale in Abu Dhabi.

Norris, while admitting he was motivated to secure back-to-back triumphs, said at McLaren’s car launch he would be content if he never won the title again, having achieved his lifetime goal.

But Brown said: “There are some drivers who say: ‘I’ve won it and I’m done.’ And then you have drivers like Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Michael Schuamcher, who say: ‘I have done it once and I want to win it twice, three, four times.’

“Lando’s confidence is very high, even higher than it was before. He is highly motivated.

“It is our job to give him and Oscar the equipment to let them fight it out for the championship and if we can do that, then both Oscar and Lando will be in with a shout.”

McLaren have won the past two constructors’ championships but could be playing catch-up to Mercedes, who appear to hold an early advantage following a major overhaul of the regulations.

McLaren are powered by Mercedes and there are claims from other teams that the German manufacturer has exploited a loophole which allows them to increase the compression ratio beyond the regulation limit of 16:1 and gain critical lap time.

Amid continued lobbying to change the rules ahead of the season opener in Australia on March 8, an animated Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff recently called on their rivals to get their “s*** together” and stop looking for excuses.

And Brown added: “It is typical politics of Formula One. It is the job of other teams that if there is a perceived advantage, they will make some story out of it.

“But the reality is that the engines are completely compliant, within the rules and have passed all of the tests. We will have all the Mercedes-powered teams on the grid in Australia, I am sure.”

The second pre-season test begins in Bahrain tomorrow ahead of three further days of testing next week prior to the curtain raiser in Melbourne on March 8.