Lando Norris has made it clear that he is still very much in the hunt for the 2026 Formula 1 championship and believes the burden of expectation now rests squarely on the shoulders of the current points leader, Kimi Antonelli. After clinching McLaren’s first Grand Prix victory of the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Norris finds himself in fifth place in the drivers’ standings, trailing Antonelli by 91 points with eleven races still to run. The British driver drew a parallel with last year’s title fight, when Max Verstappen was 104 points behind the leader with ten races remaining and ultimately fell short by just two points, allowing Norris to seize the crown. "The pressure is on him [Antonelli] for sure.
There's no pressure on me. I've been feeling very confident," Norris told Sky Sports F1, underscoring his belief that the champion’s lead is now a target rather than a shield.
Norris also praised McLaren’s progress, noting that the team’s recent upgrades – most notably a completely re‑designed floor introduced for the Hungarian round – have given the car a substantial performance boost. "They [Mercedes] have made more mistakes as a team and we have made less and we have come strong but I expect them to still win races and expect us to win more races.
We just need to be perfect from here on now for the whole year," he said. The driver stressed that consistency will be key: "We need to improve the car still. We were certainly the quickest in Hungary from qualifying to the race. Not every race is going to be this simple, and we are going to be as quick, so we need to work hard to try to get the car to be this good everywhere.
If we can, maybe that's a genuine question." Team principal Andrea Stella echoed the sentiment, reminding everyone that the 2026 season is essentially a marathon of continuous development. "Like it’s always been in this 2026 season, it’s a matter of a race of upgrades. The good news is that McLaren is now back in this race of upgrades, while fighting for the lead," Stella explained. He added that the car that finishes the season as the fastest will likely have added tenths of a second per lap over the remaining eleven events – perhaps as much as half a second – and that this work will be shared across the whole grid, not just McLaren.
During the Hungarian Grand Prix, Norris found himself stuck behind his teammate Oscar Piastri after the opening lap, despite feeling he had a clear speed advantage. The situation forced him to adopt a strategic approach, staying out longer on his second stint and ultimately executing an overcut that saw him emerge ahead of Piastri after the pit stop window closed. Earlier in the race, Norris had radioed his team saying he was "miles faster" and wanted to pit first, a request that was overruled in the interest of team harmony.
When asked about the episode, Norris emphasized the importance of teamwork over individual ambition. "I just want to win the race. There are certain rules we have as a team, and we can’t harm each other’s race by being overly aggressive and wanting to win," he explained. "But I want to win, and I certainly had much better pace than him.
We had a much better chance of winning the race, let's say." He went on to describe the tactical nuance of his decision: "When I was stuck behind Oscar, Max was three or four seconds behind, and at that point he's still a threat. Ahead, there's no threat, and we have a lot more of a guarantee that we'll win as a team anyway.
So, I wanted to box and undercut because my pace would have been so good, I could have pulled away a whole pit‑stop window, I think, on him and boxed again if I needed to. Or I get him to box early.
I think we were on the fine line between boxing too early and harming both of our races. So, it was just in the best interests of the team, which they rightly have to say back against me. But I want to do whatever I can to try and win a race, of course." Norris has generally enjoyed the upper hand over Piastri in recent outings, and many analysts argue that his form this season matches the championship‑winning performances that saw him crowned world champion last year. He admitted he is still trying to pinpoint why his advantage was so pronounced in Hungary, but remains optimistic that the feeling will persist after the summer break.
"The cars are identical, and I’ve just been feeling very strong lately. I’ve worked on many areas from last year," Norris said.
"I feel much more confident lately with how to extract performance, and I’ve worked a lot with my engineers to understand this car because it’s certainly not an easy car to understand and figure out how to drive on the limit consistently. So, why? Just hard work. Hard work from my engineers and from myself to improve me as a driver and improve my driving.
That is the answer." Looking ahead, the Formula 1 calendar resumes after the summer hiatus with a sprint weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix, scheduled for 21‑23 August. All sessions will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1, and fans can stream the coverage via NOW without a long‑term contract. Norris’s message to the media and his supporters is simple: keep the pressure on Antonelli, keep improving the McLaren, and seize every opportunity to turn the points deficit into a realistic title challenge before the season’s final race.