Lando Norris has secured his first win as world champion, but for the Brit, that is absolutely no reason to rest on his laurels. The McLaren driver explains how getting the maximum out of the MCL40 during a race is still far from smooth. According to Norris, there is also still a lot to gain on the street circuits: “If you look back at Monaco, that was a pretty terrible race for us.”
Lando Norris took his first win as world champion just before the summer break. McLaren thus became only the second team, after Ferrari, to beat Mercedes this year in the fight for a Grand Prix victory. Although the papayas seem to be on the right track, according to Norris himself there is still work to be done before he lines up at the very last Dutch GP.
“Street circuits are probably still my biggest question mark at the moment,” Norris says about the MCL40 in Zandvoort. “The car is still incredibly difficult to drive. Of course, it can be incredibly fast, as we saw in Hungary, but it’s definitely not the case that you just put the car on the circuit and it’s automatically fast. You have to understand how to drive it in every corner, under every circumstance, at every stage of the tire’s lifespan.”
Read more Result first free practice (FP1) GP Netherlands 2026
After the Dutch GP, street circuits are still on the schedule at the Grands Prix of Spain, Azerbaijan, Singapore, and Las Vegas. A total of 147 World Championship points are still up for grabs during these races. Extra motivation for Norris and McLaren to improve on these circuits.
‘Monaco was a terrible race for us’
“When you drive on street circuits and in places where there is less room to experiment and try things out, we can still perform better there,” Norris says. “But those street circuits are, well, if you look back at Monaco, that was a pretty terrible race for us. So in certain places like that and with different types of corners, I think we are not strong enough.”
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Read everything here about the Dutch GP in Zandvoort
