Which Lando Norris will F1 get in 2026?

Will Formula 1 get to see an even better Lando Norris after his 2025 breakthrough title? Or has he peaked and will he now face the heat of an ever-improving Oscar Piastri?

Norris took the crown in 2025 after what can best be called a coming-of-age season, in which new-found self-belief transformed his year after slipping further behind Piastri following a dramatic Zandvoort retirement. With McLaren's ruptured fuel line, Norris's title bid looked set to go up in smoke there and then, but he bounced back to produce his finest stretch of performances yet, having overcome technical difficulties with his McLaren in qualifying earlier in the year. It just about proved enough, despite McLaren's own failings in Las Vegas and Qatar, to hold off a resurgent title defender Max Verstappen by two points, leading to a huge outpour of emotions in Abu Dhabi as Norris achieved his childhood dream.

So, what now?

Well, run it back, and do it all again for another 24 races.

It is easy to take competing at the sharp end of elite sport for granted. After all, Norris gets to enjoy his status as the reigning world champion and is lavishly remunerated for it. But it is common for athletes to decompress after they've climbed the mountain that they had been staring up against for their whole life, only to try and figure out what else is there to achieve once after they scaled the summit.

The post-competition slump is especially common in Olympic athletes, who train for years to peak for their big moment and then face an agonisingly long four years for the next Olympic cycle. But it is not an alien concept to racing drivers either. After coming out on top of a fraught slugfest with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in 2016, Nico Rosberg decided to retire on the spot at the age of 31, citing the toll achieving his lifelong dream had taken. Hamilton was the opposite, and after patching things up with team boss Toto Wolff the Briton went on to dominate the series for another four seasons to bring his tally to seven world championships.

Rosberg was done as an F1 driver once he sealed his 2016 world title

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Given Norris' mental health journey, which he has been refreshingly honest about, one could be forgiven for thinking Norris also belongs in the one and done category. But all indications point to the 26-year-old seeing it differently. If anything, seeing the number one on his papaya-and-black McLaren has left him wanting more of the same.

"I still have many more years of Formula 1 and I will still try and get as many more championships as possible," he said. "I don't feel any different coming into this season. I still feel like I just want to go out and win. It certainly hasn't taken away any ambition or desire to want to do it again or to come into this season and go and not care about it. That's certainly not how I've pictured everything. If anything, I enjoyed last year a lot and of course I want to do it again."

As the 2026 season is shaping up, Norris will be able to put every ounce of motivation to good use. Under F1's regulations overhaul, there are no guarantees McLaren will be anywhere near the same shape it was for the past 18 months or so. Early indications are pointing to a strong start out of the gates by Mercedes, while Red Bull's first-ever power unit appears much more competitive than anyone could have anticipated.

"If you ever see me not smiling or something, just give me a punch or something to remind me because I achieved my goal in life" Lando Norris

Norris has also admitted it's not like he has run out of areas to improve either. And you always have to beat your team-mate first, and that's something Norris only managed with great difficulty in 2025 after being on the back foot for large spells.

Piastri looked untouchable for the first half of 2025 until McLaren's team orders called in Monza appeared to knock him off his even keel, and he admitted the saga was still lingering over a disastrous Baku weekend. There were also technical challenges at low-grip circuits like Austin and Mexico which has taken him back to the drawing board. Both mentally and technically, Piastri will look to benefit from those painful experiences and come out even stronger in year four of his F1 career. Will Norris still have enough for the Australian if he can replicate 2025's form for 24 races?

"There were a lot of lessons, some of them were tougher to learn," Piastri said. "The peaks I had last year were a nice confidence boost and a statement to myself, that when I get things right and maximise my potential, that I can be a very strong competitor. Some of the lessons in the back half of the year [were] very different in nature. A couple of things in Austin and Mexico from a driving point of view that I hadn't been challenged on earlier in the season. There was a pretty long string of races where it was pretty eventful for lots of different reasons. And I think just taking the lessons out of that, and how I can manage those things better. I feel like I've done a lot of good work to try and learn from that."

Piastri expects to learn from his own tough moments in 2025 and come back stronger

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

As a result, Piastri has turned up with an expanded personal team in 2026, including his confidant and former junior formula race engineer and an Australian mental coach, who will be working with him more intensively. Piastri is still managed by Mark Webber and Ann Neal, but it is understood the former will take a step back from his race weekend presence.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown feels both of his drivers, who will continue to enjoy equal treatment under what has been called "streamlined" rules of engagement, have turned up to 2026 with the same level of focus and are "going to pick up where they left off."

As far as Norris is concerned, his desire to win more titles doesn't diminish from his feeling that he has already set out to achieve his goals, whatever happens next. "If I never do [win more titles], I'm still happy," he insisted. "I still achieved one. I spent 20 years, from starting karting to last year, trying to achieve what I achieved and what we all achieved as a team, my group and my family.

"I guess not many people in life get to achieve that end goal or that life goal. So, if you ever see me not smiling or something, just give me a punch or something to remind me because I achieved my goal in life. That's something I'll always forever take with me."