Lando Norris sets ambitious 2026 goal as British driver makes surprising revelation on his past

F1 has now seen 11 British drivers crowned world champions, with Norris joining the elite club.

McLaren dominated last year, but the sport has undergone a radical overhaul of regulations, and it is unclear which team will hit the ground running this season.

However, regardless of the regulations, Norris has set his sights on back-to-back titles.

Norris said: "It is absolutely the goal. When you win one, it certainly gives you a lot more confidence.

"It is different for every driver. You have to find your own way of doing things. There are people with more confidence, and drivers with less. I have never been one to have the most confidence in myself but I certainly have more of it now, that’s for sure.

"I have always been a seeing-is-believing kind of guy and I have always had to see myself on the top step and see myself winning to finally believe that I can do it."

The British driver said: "Halfway through last season I felt like I had everything I needed - the people around me, the team, the car, and my own ability - to go out and win the championship.

"That’s the first time I have had that belief in myself and it turned out to be the correct thing to have.”

Norris was speaking at the Autosport Awards in London, where he was recognised as the British Competition Driver of the Year.

The 26-year-old revealed he had not watched the moment where he took the title in Abu Dhabi.

He said: "I have honestly tried to be as far from everything as possible and just enjoying the rest of my life.

"I love Formula One, I also love being away from it. It is an incredible job, I get paid well, and I get to travel with my friends and play golf in beautiful places and I like to go and do those other things.

"You have one life and I want to try, and enjoy, as many things as possible."

Norris will take part in next week’s behind-closed-doors test in Barcelona, which starts on Monday, in his new car.

However, perhaps surprisingly, McLaren will not take part in the first of five days of running at the Circuit de Catalunya. Teams are only allowed to run on three days.

And McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained: “We plan to start testing either on day two or day three. We wanted to give ourselves as much time as possible for development and this was always going to be plan A.

“There has been so much work on the 2026 cars. It is almost unprecedented because there has never before been such a huge and simultaneous change of chassis, power unit, and tyres.”

There will be two additional pre-season tests in Bahrain next month ahead of the opening race in Australia on March 8.

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