Lando Norris believes he has become an even better Formula 1 driver in 2026, with improvements behind the wheel and in his work away from the circuit helping him overcome weaknesses and extract more from McLaren’s difficult MCL40. The reigning world champion is arguably enjoying his strongest period since arriving in Formula 1, having followed his Budapest victory with another win at Zandvoort.
After an excellent first half of the season in which the car did not always allow him to fight with the leading Mercedes drivers, Lando Norris now has machinery capable of competing at the front. His recent form has consequently become much more visible, although the British driver insists the progress behind it had been developing for months.
Lando Norris’ 2026 form was building long before Zandvoort
There must inevitably be frustration for a driver who has only recently won his first world championship, is performing at an extremely high level and yet does not have the car required to consistently fight those ahead. Lando Norris, however, decided that publicly complaining about the situation would achieve little and could even become counterproductive.
That approach, combined with the faith he maintained in McLaren, has started to pay dividends.
Mercedes’ dominant start to the campaign and Ferrari’s subsequent recovery attracted most of the attention, leaving Lando Norris’ performances during the opening five months of the season somewhat overlooked.
Yet a closer examination of the results and smaller details already showed what the British driver was building. For many observers, Hungary marked his resurgence and the Netherlands confirmed it. In reality, Lando Norris had never disappeared.
He has actually managed to raise the level he showed during the second half of 2025, when he recovered a significant number of points against Oscar Piastri and resisted the remarkable comeback mounted by Max Verstappen and Red Bull to secure the first Formula 1 World Championship of his career.
The 2026 F1 cars created another challenge for Lando Norris
McLaren’s less convincing start was not the only factor that complicated the beginning of 2026 for Lando Norris. The new generation of Formula 1 cars has also presented a major challenge.
Lando Norris simply does not enjoy driving them. He has repeatedly described the 2026 machinery as “horrible”, and he has remained consistent in that assessment even after taking consecutive victories in Budapest and Zandvoort.
What has impressed most, however, is his ability to adapt. Lando Norris has shown an increasing capacity to transform the behaviour and performance of the car from one day to the next while also compensating for some of the MCL40’s limitations through energy-management strategies and tyre preservation.
Those skills have at times allowed him to open a substantial performance gap over Oscar Piastri.
“I drove at a high level in the second half of 2025. It’s difficult to say that I’m driving at the highest level possible now, because these are the most difficult cars possible to drive, from a certain point of view,” Lando Norris said after the Zandvoort weekend.
“I think you’ve been able to see that because the gaps between team-mates are bigger than they were last year. But I think that’s how it is. I think I’m now able to understand situations better. To understand the car better. Of course, this generation of cars is horrible to drive, but I’m doing a better job of understanding things, communicating them to my team and finding solutions.”
Lando Norris says he is eliminating his weaknesses
There is increasingly clear evidence that Lando Norris has become an even more complete driver than he was during his championship-winning 2025 campaign. According to the British driver, that improvement is not simply the result of what he does on the circuit or in the garage with his engineers.
His approach away from the track has changed as well.
“It’s not just about the fact that I’m driving better on track. I’m definitely eliminating my weaknesses on track, and I don’t have that many, but the way I work away from the track matters too.”
“For me, the change from Saturday to Sunday at Zandvoort is a perfect example: the work we did overnight transformed our race and gave me the opportunity to win.”
The turnaround was particularly significant because McLaren had encountered clear problems during Saturday’s Sprint, when Lando Norris struggled with race pace and energy management. Rather than accepting those limitations, Norris and his engineering group spent the evening looking for solutions.
Overnight McLaren work transformed the Dutch Grand Prix
“So the work we do away from the track is definitely a huge part of all of this. On Saturday evening we worked hard, really hard,” Lando Norris explained.
“I spent a lot of time with my engineers trying to understand what we could have done better in the race, how to push harder, how to preserve the tyres more, how to do everything better than I had done. And I’m convinced that I managed to do that.”
That work produced an immediate result on Sunday. Although the beginning of the Dutch Grand Prix did not initially suggest that the overnight changes had completely solved McLaren’s difficulties, the picture changed once Lando Norris moved onto the hard compound.
“The first stint of the race was pretty negative and reminded me of the Sprint Race. Then we put the Hard tyres on and things started to work: at that point the race came my way.”
The victory gave Lando Norris a second consecutive Grand Prix success and strengthened his position in the 2026 Formula 1 championship standings. More importantly, it demonstrated how effectively the reigning champion and McLaren could respond to problems from one day to the next.
McLaren improvement now gives Lando Norris more opportunities
Lando Norris’ personal development has coincided with McLaren beginning to extract considerably more from the MCL40. The team continued its development programme at Zandvoort with further rear-end upgrades for the MCL40, while Norris has also made clear that the package still has areas in which it can improve.
The British driver believes the combination of a stronger car and his own improved understanding is now allowing him to show more clearly the performance level he had already been building earlier in the season.
His Dutch Grand Prix recovery was a particularly strong example. Twenty-four hours after a frustrating Sprint, Lando Norris and his engineers had found ways to improve tyre use, energy management and overall race performance sufficiently to fight for victory.
For Norris, that process is as important as outright speed. He believes he is driving better, understanding the MCL40 more effectively, communicating more precisely with McLaren and gradually removing the weaknesses that remain. After back-to-back victories in Budapest and Zandvoort, the results are beginning to reflect that progress.
