Why Lando Norris Believes He Is Driving Better Than He Did in His 2025 Title-Winning Season

• Lando Norris says he has driven better in the first half of 2026 than he did at the same stage of his title-winning 2025 campaign, with McLaren not winning a race until the Hungarian Grand Prix.
• Norris sits fifth in the Drivers’ Championship on 128 points after 11 rounds, 91 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli.
• The McLaren driver says the team’s Hungary win came from car upgrades and says more improvements are needed to keep fighting at the front.

Lando Norris has told McLaren fans he is happy with his level of performance through the first half of 2026, saying he has driven better than he did at the same point of his 2025 title-winning season, even with the car not delivering a win until Hungary.

Norris beat team mate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to the 2025 crown after recovering from a run of costly qualifying mistakes and a collision with Piastri early in that campaign. He had hoped to defend the title under the new-for-2026 regulations, but Mercedes and Ferrari took the bulk of the wins across the opening rounds before McLaren’s first victory of the year arrived at the Hungaroring just before the summer break.

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A Frank Assessment in a McLaren Q&A

Speaking in a McLaren mid-season Q&A, Norris reflected on his own form and that of the team heading into the second half of the year. “I think in terms of my driving, and my own performance as a driver, honestly, I’m very happy,” he said. “I feel like I have been doing a good job of maximising the car’s potential.”

He went further, comparing his current level directly with the driving that carried him to the title twelve months ago. “I feel like I’ve driven better in this half of the season than I probably did to this point last year, to a certain extent, but sadly I’m not leading the championship.”

Norris added that the car has held him back from turning that form into results. “Of course, I want a better car and a car that can give me more chances and give me more results for the performance of driving I feel like I’m getting out of it, but that’s Formula 1.”

McLaren Admits It Is Below Last Year’s Level

Norris was equally direct about where McLaren stands as a team compared with the year in which it won both championships. “As a team, and with the car, we’re certainly not quite at the level we want to be at, or we were at last season,” he said.

“We have still had some good results, but we also know we’re not where we should be. We’re not happy with that, we’ve been disappointed with our own performance, but we’re working hard to improve.”

He pointed to the Hungarian Grand Prix win, where he took pole and victory after McLaren brought a package of upgrades to the Hungaroring, as proof that the work is paying off. “We’re starting to see the benefits of that hard work, our win in Hungary came as a result of strong upgrades to the car, but we need to keep pushing and keep developing if we’re going to continue to fight for wins.”

Fifth in the Standings With Half the Season Left

Norris sits fifth in the Drivers’ Championship with 11 rounds gone, holding 128 points compared to leader Kimi Antonelli’s 219. McLaren occupy third in the Teams’ Championship on 220 points, some way off leaders Mercedes on 379.

Norris said the approach that delivered the Hungary win is the one the team needs to carry into the second half of the year. “One thing I’ve learned for sure is just to have no expectations of the future and just to work in the present,” he said. “I think that’s the way we’ve been doing everything as a team. That’s why we were back on top in Hungary: just working hard on ourselves as individuals and also as a team.”

Sky Sports Rates Norris Among the Field’s Best

Norris’s own read on his form lines up with outside analysis of his season. Sky Sports’s mid-season driver ratings, published after Hungary, scored Norris 8.5 out of 10, the joint-second highest mark in the field behind only Kimi Antonelli, and noted he has generally had the upper hand over team mate Oscar Piastri from the fourth round in Miami onward, Austria being the exception.

The same ratings piece showed Norris ahead of Piastri 5-6 in qualifying head-to-heads and 128-92 in points scored between the two McLaren drivers across the opening 11 rounds, figures that back up Norris’s own sense that his level has not dropped off from his title-winning year.

Norris was rated equal with Max Verstappen at 8.5, with only championship leader Antonelli scoring higher among the field. Sky Sports credited Verstappen’s Red Bull with only one fewer podium than either Ferrari across the season, a reminder of how tight the fight for wins and podiums has become behind Mercedes and Ferrari at the front of the field.

Cautious Optimism for the Run to the Finish

Looking ahead to the Dutch Grand Prix and the remaining rounds of the season, Norris stopped short of predicting a title fight, pointing instead to the areas that still need work. “Of course, I’m optimistic for the future and I think we can win more races, but we have good competition and there are still plenty of races I’m not confident in, because the car is not to the standard that it needs to be in certain areas.”

He closed by pointing to the belief inside the team that carried it to the Hungary breakthrough. “But I have confidence in the team. I had confidence that we could win a race, and it came a bit sooner than I thought. I have confidence that we can improve in those areas that are not good enough at the time.”

The break gives McLaren time to build on that Hungary form before F1 resumes with a Sprint weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix on August 21-23, followed by Antonelli’s home round at Monza and a debut event in Madrid, three rounds that will show whether the upgrades that finally delivered a win can turn into a consistent run at the front for Norris and the team.

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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