Norris 'happy I have the pain of this year for the glory of last'

Image source, PA MediaImage caption, Lando Norris won the sprint race in Miami in May but has not had a grand prix victory so far this season F1 CorrespondentPublished22 minutes agoLando Norris is conflicted - up to a point, anyway. He admits that the start to his and McLaren's title defence this season has been "dreadful" in terms of reliability, while the pace "has not been terrible". But he accepts that, in hindsight, the difficulty they are going through this year has its roots in their success. "I'm happy I have the pain of this year for the glory of last," he says, as he sits down with BBC Sport for an extensive interview on the eve of the British Grand Prix. It was very much not McLaren's expectation that they would start 2026 unable, so far, to repeat the success they enjoyed in 2024 and 2025. But they have realised that the energy put into achieving their title double last season under an intense late-season assault from Max Verstappen and Red Bull has had consequences. Norris says: "We still put a lot of effort into making sure we were ready for this year. And we're not as ready and as strong as we would have liked to have been. "But certainly a good amount of trying to win the championship as a constructor and as a driver last year required a continued amount of dedication on the car of last season. When just more effort in other teams, teams that are doing well now, they just would have shifted more people, more focus would have gone to this year. "So, it's just the price you pay in a very competitive world against extremely good teams and clever people. "And as soon as you're just a little bit more focused on last season, especially in such a big transition of regulation, you pay the price pretty quickly." In performance terms, McLaren have started the season lagging behind pace-setters Mercedes, and fluctuating between second and fourth fastest team, depending on the race. Their one chance of grand prix victory, when Norris was leading Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli in Miami, was fumbled through a strategic error. Beyond that, continued reliability issues - some common to all teams with Mercedes engines, some at McLaren's own door - have led to a series of retirements. The result is Norris heads into his home race, which he won last year, in fifth place in the championship, 92 points off leader Antonelli. "Expectations were high from my side, from us as a team," Norris says. "Rightly so. But it's just been more difficult than we would have wanted, for sure. From a power-unit side of things and from a car side of things. "Should have won in Miami. So it's not like we're having a dreadful season. It's been dreadful for one reason, reliability and issues. That's been the biggest letdown of the whole year. "But apart from that, the pace has not been terrible. And we can still go into weekends now with some confidence that we can have a good weekend. And that can mean a podium. It means extracting absolutely everything and being perfect the whole weekend. But it's possible." The fact that he achieved his lifetime's ambition has made it easier to cope with the struggles, he says. "I'm still able to probably smile more, definitely able to smile more now even through the tough times because of last season," Norris says. "So, I'm still basking in the moments of last season. "But every driver is in it now because they want to win now. I'm not going to be happy finishing fifth, sixth, fourth the whole season. So, I enjoy winning. I want to return to winning. And that's my goal currently." Not being able to defend his title - so far - has been "a little bit frustrating", he acknowledges. But his love for McLaren is as strong as ever. Norris, 26, has been mentored by Zak Brown, McLaren Racing's chief executive officer, for well over a decade, since long before the American even thought about ending up in that role. And Norris has spent his entire F1 career so far - eight years and counting - with McLaren. He has no intention of changing that for the foreseeable future. For Norris, winning is important, but it's not everything. "The thing that people don't realise is I want to win races, and I certainly want to win here and now, and I want to win in the future, and you've got to think of both things in the world of Formula 1," he says. "But I'll also at times choose happiness of place over maybe some unknown territory. "There might be a year in Formula 1 where I'm very happy at McLaren. We might win, we might not. I'd rather stay here and enjoy my years at McLaren than maybe choose to go somewhere else where I could have a better chance. "I'll always try to be at a team that I can win with. And for a long time I've been with McLaren. I believed it could be McLaren. "But for me there's a fine line between just wanting to go out and win and also just wanting to be with people that I love to be with, a team that I love to be with, and fighting with them. And I've fought with McLaren since

Norris 'happy I have the pain of this year for the glory of last'

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