{"id":455856,"date":"2026-02-05T17:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/455856\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:10:08","slug":"lando-norris-driven-to-defend-f1-title-but-says-he-has-different-mentality-to-max-formula-one-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/455856\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris driven to defend F1 title but says he has \u2018different mentality to Max\u2019 | Formula One 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris has insisted he enters the new Formula One season highly motivated to retain the world championship he won for the first time<\/a> last year. The McLaren driver believes his maiden triumph has only given him greater confidence in his ability.<\/p>\n

Norris won the championship after an intense competition that went to the wire. After a three-way fight with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen, Norris sealed the title by only two points at the final race of the season<\/a> in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n

The British driver has always been open about his approach to racing and admitted that, while he had already achieved his lifelong dream, that achievement did not blunt his determination to win another championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still have many more years in Formula One<\/a> and I will still try to get as many more championships as possible. If I never do, I\u2019m so happy,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I don\u2019t achieve something again, I always have something that I\u2019m very proud about. I know it\u2019s a huge achievement but it certainly hasn\u2019t taken away any ambition or desire to want to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris faced some accusations last year that he did not possess the killer instinct vital in a tough championship fight, especially when compared with his uncompromising rival Verstappen. Norris, however, stuck to his claims that he wanted to prove he could win it his way by being a fair and honest driver.<\/p>\n

He proved the doubters wrong but in the buildup to the new season \u2013 which starts in Melbourne on 8 March \u2013 faced the question of whether he had the same steel and ambition as his Red Bull rival to become a multiple winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite clear that I have a different mentality and a different approach to what Max has. Good or bad, you decide,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that I still admire in Max, and I wish I had a little bit more of that here and there. There\u2019s still plenty of things I want to work on and I want to be better on. The baseline level of where I\u2019m at now is already pretty good. My motivation to win is exactly the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anything, I have more confidence. I\u2019ve said in the past that I\u2019m very much a guy who has to see something to believe in it. Did I believe I could be on pole for the first time or win a race? When I\u2019ve done it, then I\u2019ve gone: \u2018Ah, I can do it.\u2019 I have to find my own way and not disregard what other people have done in the past, but just understand what is always going to motivate me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The task facing the 26-year-old is daunting. F1 is introducing a swathe of new regulations this season, drastically changing the cars and how they will be driven, alongside entirely new hybrid power units which will now utilise a 50-50 split in power generation between the internal combustion engine and electrical energy, which the drivers first experienced in pre-season testing in Barcelona last week.<\/p>\n

Lando Norris revels in the moment he clinched his first world title with McLaren\u2019s elated paddock staff. Photograph: Xavi Bonilla\/DPPI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Managing how the McLaren\u2019s electrical power is employed across a lap, including the use of a push-to-pass boost function, will play a major part and Norris believes it could fundamentally change F1 racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what you\u2019re going to see is almost more chaotic racing, depending on when people use the boost button,\u201d he said. \u201cCreate racing potentially in better ways than you have been able to in the past and that\u2019s probably a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extra energy employed needs to be recovered after use, allowing drivers the chance to come back at their rivals. \u201cYou\u2019ll see more yo-yoing, more moves with extra speed,\u201d Norris said. \u201cYou realise once you use the boost button how much that can hurt you on the next straight and how you have to get the battery back up quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest challenge at the minute is battery management and knowing how to utilise that in the best way. It\u2019s not simple. You have a very powerful battery that doesn\u2019t last very long. So knowing how to use it at the right times, how much energy, how much of that power you use, how you split that up around the lap. Our challenge as a team, as drivers, is all of these things. Our job is to try to be on top of that as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The season\u2019s second test takes place in Bahrain from Wednesday to Friday next week, with the final test a week later before the opening Australian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris has insisted he enters the new Formula One season highly motivated to retain the world championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-455856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}