Has winning the F1 title changed Lando Norris’ outlook on 2026 season?

McLaren’s Lando Norris says he doesn’t “feel any different” coming into the 2026 season as Formula 1 world champion, while he approaches it “with the same ambition”.

The British driver prevailed in a dramatic title battle in 2025 that was pushed all the way to the finale in Abu Dhabi.

Lando Norris faced a tricky first half to the year, as McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri looked to have the measure of him, before his form improved in the second half.

As well as Piastri, Norris then had to stave off the growing challenge from Red Bull and Max Verstappen in the second part of the campaign, with the British driver ultimately winning the title by just two points.

Norris became McLaren’s first world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008, as well as the first British title winner since Hamilton in 2020.

Coming into the new season as the number one, Norris doesn’t believe his ambitions have changed.

“Honestly, no,” he replied during a McLaren media event if he has had to reset coming into the new season as champion.

“As much as I say that, I don’t feel any different coming into this season.

“I still feel like I just want to go out and win. I feel like that’s my baseline feeling is consistently that.

“I think it’s just more at the end of the day, if I don’t achieve something again, I always will have something that I’m proud about and I know is a huge achievement.

“It certainly hasn’t taken away any ambition or desire to do it again, or to come into this season and not care about it.

“If anything, I enjoyed last year a lot and I want to do it again, just hopefully with a longer off-season than last year.

“I just have that feeling that if one day I don’t achieve something again, I have this to fall back on and I’ll always be proud, no matter what people say.

“But I’ve come into this year with the same ambition, which is to try and win again.”

McLaren’s 2026 season got underway last week at the Barcelona shakedown, as it put its new car through its paces.

It will be back in action next week at the official Bahrain test, while its official season launch is slated for 9 February, where it will unveil its new livery.