Why Norris thinks he’s driving better than he did during his title-winning F1 season

McLaren driver Lando Norris has expressed satisfaction over the level of performance he is delivering in 2026, believing he has driven “better than I probably did to this point last year”, when he was pushing for a maiden F1 world title.

Norris recovered from a series of setbacks across the first half of the 2025 season – including costly Qualifying mistakes and a collision with team mate Oscar Piastri – to ultimately beat the Australian and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to the crown.

The Briton had hoped to kick on and defend his title under the new-for-2026 regulations, but rivals Mercedes and Ferrari have taken the lion’s share of victories so far – Norris and McLaren only recording their first win of the campaign just before the summer break in Hungary.

Speaking in a McLaren mid-season Q&A, Norris took a moment to reflect on his and the team’s efforts up to this point, how he feels he has become a stronger driver since his title triumph, and what’s to come over 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,” said Norris, who capitalised on McLaren’s updates at the Hungaroring to take pole position and the victory. “I feel like I have been doing a good job of maximising the car’s potential.

“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.

“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.”

He continued: “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.

“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.

“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.”

Looking ahead to the second half of the season, Norris refused to get carried away by that breakthrough Budapest win, but pointed to McLaren “still seeing good potential in the car” as cause for optimism.

With 11 rounds down, he sits fifth in the Drivers’ Championship on 128 points, compared to leader Kimi Antonelli’s 219, while McLaren are third in the Teams’ Championship on 220 points, compared to leaders Mercedes’ 379.

“One thing I’ve learned for sure is just to have no expectations of the future and just to work in the present,” Norris added. “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.

“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.

“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.”