{"id":337227,"date":"2025-12-09T13:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/337227\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T13:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:29:07","slug":"lando-norris-makes-decision-on-f1-2026-car-number-after-winning-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/337227\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris makes decision on F1 2026 car number after winning title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris will run the number \u20181\u2019 on his McLaren next season as the sport says goodbye to the \u20184\u2019 and welcomes the return of the \u201933\u2019, although Max Verstappen could yet change to \u20183\u2019.<\/p>\n

Norris won the World title in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, his P3 enough to ensure he took the title from race winner Max Verstappen by two points, ending the Red Bull driver\u2019s four-year reign.<\/p>\n

Lando Norris: It\u2019s there for a reason<\/p>\n

His championship success means Norris<\/a> can, if he wants, put the number \u20181\u2019 on his McLaren next season.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a decision that he easily made.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tradition,\u201d he told Sky Sports News. \u201cIt\u2019s there for a reason. It\u2019s there because you can go and try grab it and you can work hard to try and get it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us as a team that gets to have a role in McLaren, or my car, will get to wear that with pride. It\u2019s all my mechanics, my engineers, everyone that\u2019s part of McLaren gets to have that acknowledgement too.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s not for me, it\u2019s for them as well. It\u2019s their pride, knowing that they put a lot of work and effort into everything that they can also go \u2018we\u2019re number one\u2019. It\u2019s not as cool when you say \u2018we are number four\u2019 so they will be even happier than I am!\u201d<\/p>\n

That means the number \u20184\u2019 will disappear from the grid for a year, perhaps even longer, but the \u201933\u2019 will be back.<\/p>\n

More on F1 drivers<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 driver numbers: Which numbers will the drivers be using in 2025 and why?<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 2026 driver line-up: Lewis Hamilton and other drivers already confirmed for 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

That was Verstappen\u2019s number before he won his first World Drivers\u2019 Championship in 2021.<\/p>\n

The Red Bull driver, though, has made it known that if he can, he\u2019d rather run Daniel Ricciardo\u2019s former number \u20183\u2019.<\/p>\n

Verstappen had wanted the number \u20183\u2019 on his car when he joined Formula 1, but Ricciardo was already running with it on his car, leaving the then-teenager to run with his second choice.<\/p>\n

Last month, though, the F1 Commission announced a pending change that would allow the drivers to change their racing numbers rather than stick to their initial choice. The exact mechanism of this proposal is yet to be decided.<\/p>\n

\u201cChanges to the regulation on permanent competition numbers for drivers, introduced for the 2014 season, were discussed. It was agreed that a proposal for drivers to change their numbers during their career would be permitted,\u201d read the notes.<\/p>\n

It paves the way for a driver to change to a number that was previously taken when they started their F1 careers.<\/p>\n

That number for Verstappen is the number \u20183\u2019, which he would like to run next season should he lose the World title and the number \u20181\u2019 from his Red Bull racer.<\/p>\n

Prior to winning the title for the first time in 2021, Verstappen had doubled up with \u201933\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do indeed have to get approval, so it\u2019s a good question what number I will drive with next year,\u201d he told De Telegraaf of his plans for his F1 2026 race number.<\/p>\n

Since 2014, the Formula 1 drivers have run a chosen number that was theirs for their entire career.<\/p>\n

Read next: Max Verstappen only has himself to blame<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris will run the number \u20181\u2019 on his McLaren next season as the sport says goodbye to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,1737,913,44,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-337227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-lando-norris","15":"tag-mclaren","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}