Ahead of the F1 Australian GP weekend, Lando Norris discussed his expectations for the 2026 season. The British driver enters the season as World Champion with McLaren and will hope to match his performance from last year.
Norris confident in the team ahead of F1 season opener
Last season, Lando Norris won the F1 Australian GP, securing his first victory right at the opening weekend. With the new regulations in place, the weekend will set new benchmarks for each team.
Speaking in a written media session about the upcoming season, the British driver appeared confident and ready to fight at the front. Even if they are not fastest in Melbourne, he believes they can bring game-changing updates like in 2023 and 2024.
“I mean, I just have good confidence in the team no matter what. I don’t think we’re starting on the back foot. You know, even if you’re second, third or fourth quickest, I don’t think that’s on the back foot. I think that’s a very good position to start in. And I think in previous years where it’s been harder to improve over the course of a season, we’ve certainly proved that you could. And I continue to believe that, you know, it’s a long road. So I will continue to believe that.”
Norris on lessons learned from last season ahead of the F1 Australian GP
Norris continued to reflect on his lessons from last season and incorporate them into his mindset for the F1 2026 season.
“I guess one of the big learning things from last year is to not get frustrated with one bad race, two bad races, a bad beginning of the year. You can always come back your way as long as you keep working hard.
“And I have very good faith in the team that they can, if we don’t start in the best way possible, that we will be able to continue to work as efficiently as possible to bring upgrades, bring big things later on through the season to help turn things around if that is the case.
“But even if we start in good form, I still expect us to continue that and improve a lot through the middle of the course of the season. And that’s certainly the goal.
“So yeah, certainly not led by our results this weekend or the first few races of the year. It’s more understanding that it’s a long season and we have plenty of time to improve everything.”
Certainly, McLaren has experienced a season that started poorly and ended strongly. In 2023, the team began the season facing many challenges. With few points and more problems than not, it was a tough season for them.
Eventually, their direction shifted, and the improvements pushed them to the front of the grid. Their improvements helped shape them into winning both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships in 2025. They are targeting a third straight Constructors’ title this year.
Norris on the MCL40: “It’s tricky”
While several drivers have expressed concerns about driving the new F1 2026 cars, Lando Norris has remained more optimistic. Despite having a dominant car last season, the 26-year-old found it challenging to drive at times. Still, he admits he had a better understanding of McLaren’s MCL39.
When asked how he feels about the MCL40 and what he needs from it, Norris explained:
“It’s tricky. It also takes a bit of time to understand some of those things. I think what was different over the last couple of years and last year was we also had a good car at the end of that previous season that I was very comfortable in and understood very well how to extract that time. The rules were the same the following year, but the car changed and we obviously improved in some ways.
“I had a more direct understanding of what I really wanted in the car. This is such a different car now. It’s quite hard to fully feedback quite in the same way as I did last year. We’re also at a point where whenever there’s something I’m not comfortable with or I’m not happy with, I always tell the team, no matter what it is. I try to be as precise as I think I was last season with what I like to be like. At the minute there’s so many other problems, things to think about and issues and driving styles that we’ve still yet to figure out completely.“
Extracting the most out of the car
The World Champion continued to explain that last season, the complaints about the car stemmed from the fact that he knew he could extract more performance from it. Ahead of the 2026 F1 Australian GP, Lando Norris said:
“There’s a lot more focus on that and lap time in that than there was last year. When I was complaining last year, it wasn’t that I was three tenths off, it was that I maybe wasn’t getting the last tenth out of the car that I wanted, or a tenth and a half at times.“
Reflecting on this year’s car, the Brit admits that more improvement and adaptation are necessary. Until the team and drivers properly get the new cars out on track in racing conditions, understanding exactly where they stand can be challenging.
Nonetheless, Norris believes all will be revealed soon, starting at the 2026 F1 Australian GP.
“The car is so different this year, it still takes a lot of adaptation and we’ll continue to take adaptation. I think until we’ve made it through the course of this year, probably at least a third of the way through this year until we drive different tracks, different tyres, different tarmacs, different weather conditions, I can get close to that level of accuracy that I was requiring last year. So I don’t think it’s an issue as of yet, I’ll probably find out soon.”
