Welcome into Lando Norris’s psyche. And his view on his potential title rival of 2026, a Brit he knew through their karting boyhoods, George Russell.
‘Sneaky’ is Norris’s adjective for the Mercedes driver who will start the season in Melbourne this weekend as favourite to wrest his title away.
The world champion’s verdict on his challenger comes after he walks into the McLaren Technology Centre, the team’s space-age factory in Woking, for his only newspaper interview since he left Abu Dhabi with his ambition realised on a night a million doubts in his own mind, and those of others, were soothed.
Surrounded by cars of legend in ‘The Spine’, a subterranean lair in the labyrinth of the immaculate, grease-free, Norman Foster-designed confection, we shake hands and he sits down with a jaunty air ahead of Sunday’s opening race.
He reflects on his defining achievement, confronting with honesty an essential lack of confidence in his abilities, telling how he overcame such demons that beset him in the heat of battle, and talks of a contest he would welcome with Russell, a wily competitor about whom he lets slip the word ‘sneaky’ as a double-edged judgment with a degree of begrudging admiration.
Peering into the 24-race marathon season, Norris rates his team third fastest in the early overhaul of regulations – new engines (half electric/half internal combustion engines) and slimmer, nimbler cars.
Champion Lando Norris is all smiles ahead of the Formula One season which kicks off in Melbourne on Sunday
Norris outlines his hopes for the new season to Daily Mail Sport’s Jonathan McEvoy at the McLaren Technology Centre, the team’s space-age factory in Woking
Mercedes are expected to lead the way, followed by Ferrari, who have made a lightning fast start. Then McLaren, followed by Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. The rest, led by Haas and Alpine, are a long way back. Four teams and eight cars seem to be out in front.
Which brings us to Russell, who took over from Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes’ top driver in 2025 and represents their best hope of winning the title 12 months on. Two Brits, or three if 41-year-old Hamilton can possibly roll back the years at Ferrari, could be contesting the crown.
‘George always knows what he’s doing,’ argues Norris. ‘He tries to look the good guy. But he’ll do what he needs to do, in a sneaky way at times. But I think a lot of him. He is a very, very good driver. He’ll play the game whenever he has to play the game. I mean, he’s smart. He sometimes tries to come across like he’s not.
‘I don’t know who is the sneakiest driver. George is just a smart driver. George, Max, and Lewis, as well. One is a seven-time world champion, one is Max, and George is certainly up there in terms of intelligence.
‘He is always switched on, which is a strength. There is always a reason to put your car here or there or to do this or that. They are not clumsy drivers. They are clever like that.
‘As for us at McLaren, we didn’t look the quickest last year in pre-season testing in Bahrain. And then we turned up to Australia and we were very good. Just wait and see. We are in the top four teams so we know we’re in a good world. As long we’re in a fight, then it’s a long season.’
We now come to Norris’s own state of mind and a study of his often-stressful journey to the title after a fretful slump early in 2025. He became the 11th Briton ever to win motor racing’s greatest prize, secured in the decider in the desert against Red Bull’s Verstappen, whom Norris rates with good reason as the best driver in history, and his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.
‘Everyone is born different,’ explains Norris, the son of a Bristolian millionaire businessman Adam, who funded his career lavishly. ‘And people act differently. Some guys are full of confidence. They can be overconfident, too.
‘It is amazing having the thought of being world champion in my head,’ says Norris
‘George Russell always knows what he’s doing,’ Norris tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘He tries to look the good guy. But he’ll do what he needs to do, in a sneaky way at times’
‘Others are quietly confident. Others are in the middle. And there are others who aren’t confident. On that scale, at the beginning of last season I was in the middle, to under that. Do I believe I am a very good driver and can fight to be one of the best in the world? Yes. But to fight to be the best and to be No1 is very difficult if you are in that under-confident group.
‘My lowest point came in the run-up to Monaco at the end of May last year (a race he won after six patchy rounds without a victory, kickstarting a fightback). I started working on things a lot more behind the scenes (on his mental state) ahead of the race in Zandvoort, mid-season – and also working with the team here at McLaren, on my driving and car set-up.
‘Some of it was trying not to question myself going into qualifying, just because my mind is always active. There were times I deleted Instagram, and I didn’t want to see what people were saying about me.
‘In some ways this was easy. But I have always cared about how I come across. Sometimes I wanted to see what people said about me. But I deleted it all from my phone, so I could concentrate on the stuff I needed to concentrate on and not get distracted.’
You wonder whether Verstappen loomed largest in his mind as the Dutchman mounted a comeback for the ages, wringing everything and more out of the car he was driving to take the title fight down to the final day. Did he not cast a spell over his semi-pal Lando?
‘I don’t think there is any spell,’ claims Norris.
So, does he think he is the real No 1, the numeral sewn into the champion’s cap that he is wearing for his interview with Daily Mail Sport?
He gulps.
‘I have never been one just to say, “Yes”,’ he says. ‘It is difficult to put it as a whole. The answer is made up of an entire season. There will be days when Oscar did better than me on certain weekends. Or when George is quicker. Or Lewis. Or Charles (Leclerc, Hamilton’s team-mate).
‘We didn’t look the quickest last year in pre-season testing in Bahrain,’ says Norris. ‘And then we turned up to Australia and we were very good. Just wait and see’
‘People may look at me differently from the outside (now that I am world champion) but it doesn’t change my opinion of myself’
‘Formula One is like that. It is how you do over a whole season, and that is what I did well last year. I have no problem in saying that Max is the best driver of all time. He is a genius and gets his elbows out and proves himself very, very often but there are drivers who can outperform others at given times on different weekends.
‘It is amazing having the thought of being world champion in my head,’ adds a contemplative Norris, who has clearly grown in maturity since taking the title, a transition from a kid dreaming to a partly-sated man of 26.
‘It’s also amazing to be reminded of it by others when I compare it to what I grew up wanting. I have a different perspective and feeling now, having watched Lewis, Jenson (Button) and Seb (Vettel) winning it on TV.
‘When it is you, it is a different way of viewing things. People may look at you differently from the outside but it doesn’t change my opinion of myself.’
Does his new status mean he never has to buy his own dinner out?
‘No, life doesn’t work like that,’ he laughs. ‘But you do get to meet incredible people.’
Examples, please, I ask interestedly.
He elaborates reluctantly. An echo of how he wants to keep out of the press news over his reported split from his 23-year-old on-off Portuguese model girlfriend Magui Corceiro. They embraced publicly the moment he won the title, but he politely rules the topic off reportable conversation – it’s part of ‘my private life and I want to keep that private’.
Back to the stars with whom he is now associating. ‘Tom Brady,’ he says, citing only the great quarterback, who attends a few F1 races each year.
‘You get respect from other athletes because they understand what it takes to get to the top more than other people do. You get to meet them and build a relationship and can become friends. You get to meet some incredible people.’
Norris has reportedly split from his on-off Portuguese model girlfriend Magui Corceiro
‘It is how you do over a whole season,’ says Norris, ‘and that is what I did well last year. I have no problem in saying that Max Verstappen (right) is the best driver of all time’
Last year, Norris half-joked that he might stop at winning one title, as Nico Rosberg did having beaten Hamilton to the championship in 2016. His comment, a strange one at the zenith of the title fight, was probably uttered as a safety valve, as a release of pressure.
Does he still even countenance such a thought?
‘No, 100 per cent I want to win more,’ says Norris. ‘I am in Formula One to win. I will stop if I know I no longer like it. But it won’t be anytime soon.
‘I do what I do because I have loved racing since I was a kid. I love it. In two years, I may feel differently; it may be five years, or 10 years. It may never be. I don’t know.’
