Ahead of the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP, Lando Norris talked about his season so far and how difficult the MCL40 has been to drive.
The defending F1 World Champion has had an excellent season. Coming off the back of his greatest racing day last December in Abu Dhabi, Lando Norris has driven very well. Ultimately, the MCL40 has been nowhere near a title contender. Kimi Antonelli is set to take his crown on Sunday. The Italian only needs to finish P9 to seal the deal.
Pole positions got converted into wins at the Hungarian and Dutch Grands Prix. He was set to do the same at the Spanish round in Madrid, until a horribly timed VSC took that away from him. Nonetheless, the pole lap in Madrid until the last corner was one of the best this century.
Speaking in a print media session on Thursday ahead of the Mexico City GP, the 13-time race winner does not care about the fight for P2 in the Drivers’ Championship. Right now, he is an outsider in P6, 31 points behind George Russell in 2nd.
Nonetheless, Lando Norris is extremely happy with his performance level in 2026 with five rounds to go. The 27-year-old is 67 points clear of teammate Oscar Piastri in the standings.
“If I look at the championship now, in 5 years time there’s nothing to be proud about in terms of position. Position I don’t really care unless I’m fighting for a world championship.
“I think the only thing that makes you proud is how you just achieved every race, if you feel like you’ve achieved the maximum you can. I feel like my 2 wins I had this season, the race in Spain [Madrid], I feel like I’ve had a very, very good season.
Many not looking beyond results in 2026, says Lando Norris
“In Formula 1, too many things are judged off simply just results at the end of the day, which is just sport and that’s Formula 1. It’s how it’s always been.
“But in many ways I feel like I’ve done a very good year. Just the results don’t always show it sadly.
“You can do nothing but just keep working hard and try to go again next year.”
A tough 2026 F1 Mexico City GP ahead for McLaren?
Last year at the F1 Mexico City GP, Lando Norris had arguably his best weekend in the sport to date. In qualifying, he was on pole by almost 0.3s of a second. The race, however, is where he really left a mark. By the end of it, he was a full 30s clear of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. He took of the most dominant and commanding wins this decade.
While the weaknesses of the MCL40 are clear, the Brit wonders if they can be at least competitive against Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. Due to the altitude, this is a pretty unique track. Even with maximum downforce, the cars slide around and lack grip.
One thing is for sure ahead of the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP, Norris does not expect to have the dream balance of a very strong and compliant front and rear end like he did in 2025.
“It could be challenging. It could be amazing.
“I think, of course, when we look at where we were so weak last weekend was the slow speed. It was 12, 13, 15.
“There’s a lot of slow speed corners here. You have a lot less grip, less downforce. In a way, nothing should suit us.
“In the past, we’ve had some good races here, even when we haven’t been that strong in those types of places. I think the different tarmac, different downforce, different conditions, things can always change around a little bit.”
Cannot be smooth
“The way you have to drive our car means you can’t be nice to it. You can’t be smooth with it.
“Generally, I would say last year, that’s what made me feel so good here, was how smooth I could be and how gentle I could be with the car, like have a lot of front end, have obviously a very strong rear at the same time, but a lot of front end that I could just drive very slowly in a way. This was easily my best race of the season last season.”
Norris on the difficulties he is facing with the MCL40 in 2026
Although the MCL40 has shown flashes of very strong speed through the year, the car has been nowhere near the consistency level of Mercedes and Ferrari, with Red Bull joining in on that thanks to an upgrade in Baku.
While Lando Norris has taken three poles and two wins, a constant theme since the start of F1 2026 has been how hard the MCL40 is to extract lap time out of. It applies even more to Oscar Piastri as his World Champion teammate has achieved it on more occasions.
The rear of the MCL40 is very snappy, meaning both drivers struggle to trust it on corner entry in particular. It was brutally exposed during practice and qualifying in Austin once more last weekend. On a qualifying sim in FP2, the Brit tried multiple times to turn the car in 15 but it would not comply. On Saturday, he qualified 8th, moving up to 5th in the Grand Prix itself.
Norris explained on Thursday ahead of the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP how the feeling changes every weekend. Having to constantly adapt his driving style to suit the MCL40 is mentally taxing.
“This year, I certainly don’t feel like I’m going to be able to drive the car like that, because that’s not how the car likes to be driven, in terms of no performance comes from it. No lap time comes from it when I drive it that way.”
Constantly changing
“Every weekend it changes. It’s not like you have to drive this always like this. It changes every single weekend. That’s what’s confusing about it and difficult about it, is every track, every type of corner, tarmac, tyre. You have to basically just recalibrate every single time, and that’s what makes it so frustrating, mentally draining and difficult.
“But there’s quite often good potential that can come from it, when you’re able to put it together, which is rare. We proved over this year that there have been a few races where I was able to put together the qualifying laps and put in a magical lap in Q3, like in Spain, Budapest, Zandvoort and end up winning the race.”
Norris: Piastri and I both need an easier car to drive in F1 2027
For the fourth straight season since they became teammates, the World Champion is set to beat Oscar Piastri in the Drivers’ Championship. While the gap is not at the level of 2023 or 2024, 67 points is a significant difference.
However, despite Lando Norris’ strong levels of adaptation, he is also far from happy with McLaren’s 2026 F1 package. He has called on the team to deliver a car next season that has a much wider operating window and easier to drive. That naturally means both drivers can thrive more often.
“Yeah, there’s not a lot you can do at the time, but I guess next year we try and design the car and set it up and create it in a way that suits us as drivers a little bit more. You might say it suits me because my performance is better at the minute, but it doesn’t suit me at all, and it doesn’t suit Oscar, and we want a car that suits us both much better.”
