2026-08-24 08:58:03
Lando Norris claims that he doesn’t “have the car” needed to win the F1 world championship.
The McLaren driver won for the second consecutive race at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday (23.08.26) to reduce the gap to championship leader Kimi Antonelli to 83 points but claims that his car isn’t at the level he needs if he is to make it back-to-back world titles.
Norris said after the race at Zandvoort: “I don’t have the confidence to say, ‘Yeah, I can easily fight for a championship for the rest of the season.’
“I know I’ve just won two races in a row and had two poles in a row, but at the minute I don’t have the car I need to fight for a championship.
“And I know that’s quite a big comment, but I think last year I understood what is needed from a car and what was needed for myself. And I know the level that I am now and what I know I can perform at, and I know just what I need from the car. And I know what tracks we have coming up where we’re going to certainly struggle more, and I don’t want to struggle more.
“So I’m just doing my part to make sure, as a team, we don’t relax, we don’t get complacent in any way, and we work more than we’ve ever done before, even more than the last two years when we’ve won championships.”
Norris feels that McLaren’s weakness in slow-speed corners will hold the team back unless it can be addressed in the second half of the season.
The British racer said: “Certainly, the slow speed is still our biggest weakness, especially just this tight, twisty stuff.
“The kind of more flowing corners, we’re not so bad at. You know, there’s still some slow speed in Budapest, but the fact it’s a little bit more open and flowing, but still slow speed, things were better there. But as soon as it kind of gets proper tight and twisty, this is when the car doesn’t like it.
“If we can improve on these slow speeds, I’m confident that I can win every race this season. If we don’t, then it’s much more difficult to believe so.”
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