Lando Norris has not ruled out mounting a title fightback and says all the pressure is on Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
Norris claimed McLaren’s first Grand Prix win of the season on Sunday with an impressive performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix and sits fifth in the Drivers’ Championship, 91 points behind Antonelli with 11 rounds remaining.
Last year, Max Verstappen was 104 points off the championship lead with 10 events to go and fell just two points short of the title, which was won by Norris.
“The pressure is on him [Antonelli] for sure. There’s no pressure on me. I’ve been feeling very confident,” Norris told Sky Sports F1.
“They [Mercedes] have made more mistakes as a team and we have made less and we have come strong but I expect them to still win races and expect us to win more races. We just need to be perfect from here on now for the whole year.
“We need to improve the car still. We were certainly the quickest in Hungary from qualifying to the race. Not every race is going to be this simple, and we are going to be as quick, so we need to work hard to try to get the car to be this good to get the car to be this good everywhere. If we can, maybe that’s a genuine question.”
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Highlights from the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix
McLaren brought a major upgrade packaged to Hungary, including a new floor, which has given them a big chunk of pace, having been able to fight at the front for most of the season.
Team principal Andrea Stella expects everyone to continue to bring new parts after the summer break, so McLaren must continue to improve too.
“Like it’s always been in this 2026 season, it’s a matter of a race of upgrades. The good news is that McLaren is now back in this race of upgrades, while fighting for the lead,” he said.
“But I expect that the car that will be the best car at the end of the season will keep adding tenths of a second in the next 11 races, probably as much as half a second. So definitely a lot of work ahead of everyone, not only McLaren.”
The F1 Drivers’ Championship with 11 rounds remaining
Norris defends pit priority call in Hungary
Norris lost out to Piastri on the opening lap of Sunday’s race and was stuck behind his team-mate, despite clearly having more pace in hand.
He eventually used that speed advantage around the second pit stop phase by running longer than Piastri and overcutting the Australian. Prior to that moment, Norris wanted to pit first and had stated on the radio he was “miles faster”.
“I just want to win the race. There are certain rules we have as a team, and we can’t harm each other’s race by being overly aggressive and wanting to win,” said Norris in the press conference.
“But I want to win, and I certainly had much better pace than him. We had a much better chance of winning the race, let’s say.
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Watch Oscar Piastri take the lead from Lando Norris as George Russell has a race start to forget at Hungaroring in Budapest
“When I was stuck behind Oscar, Max was three or four seconds behind, and at that point he’s still a threat. Ahead, there’s no threat, and we have a lot more of a guarantee that we’ll win as a team anyway.
“So, I wanted to box and undercut because my pace would have been so good, I could have pulled away a whole pit-stop window, I think, on him and boxed again if I needed to. Or I get him to box early. I think we were on the fine line between boxing too early and harming both of our races.
“So, it was just in the best interests of the team, which they rightly have to say back against me. But I want to do whatever I can to try and win a race, of course.”
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Watch the moment that Lando Norris claims victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix!
Norris has generally had the upper hand over Piastri in recent races and many feel the British driver is performing just as well as last year when he became world champion.
The McLaren driver is unsure why his pace advantage was so significant in Hungary but hopes he continues to have the same feelings in the car after the summer break.
“The cars are identical, and I’ve just been feeling very strong lately. I’ve worked on many areas from last year,” he said.
“I feel much more confident lately with how to extract performance, and I’ve worked a lot with my engineers to understand this car because it’s certainly not an easy car to understand and figure out how to drive on the limit consistently.
“So, why? Just hard work. Hard work from my engineers and from myself to improve me as a driver and improve my driving. That is the answer.”
The Formula 1 season resumes after the summer break with a Sprint weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix from August 21-23, with every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
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