Norris: I can be forceful to get what I want at McLaren

Reigning world champion Lando Norris says he is in a position at McLaren where he "can be forceful to try to get what I want" after signing a contract extension with the team.

Norris claimed his maiden title in 2025 to become McLaren's first world championship winner since Lewis Hamilton triumphed for them in 2008.

Having emerged victorious in an intense season-long title battle with his team-mate Oscar Piastri, Norris has further enhanced his status within the Woking squad by clearly outperforming the Australian so far in 2026.

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The 26-year-old Brit's position at the centre of the team's future was cemented on Saturday when he signed a contract extension to stay with McLaren until at least the end of 2030, with a multi-year option to potentially extend further beyond that included in the deal.

Asked during an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News about how his role within the team has changed over time, Norris said: "You learn over the years when you should talk, when you shouldn't.

"In terms of how much power you have as the driver and as an individual, in the first few years, you're not going to overstep any mark. I'm certainly not going to raise my voice above someone else, kind of thing.

"With time, you learn that my role is not simply just driving the car. It's also how can I be a leader, how can I lead the team, how can I be a voice for all the people that work here, all the guys and girls? How can I push them to do better, to be better? As well as pushing myself, of course. And how can we all work and do that as a team?"

Norris is driving his eighth season for McLaren, having been given his F1 debut by the team as a 19-year-old in 2019. His 163 Grand Prix starts are a team record, with Norris having surpassed fellow Brit David Coulthard's mark of 150 at last year's Qatar Grand Prix.

He continued: "I've just learned the power that I can have and influence I can have over directions that we work in as a team. Of course, I never want to abuse that, but at the same time, I know that I'm in a position where I can be forceful to try and get what I want, from a car, from the team, from people around me.

"And that's a very important thing. You've got to utilise that, I think, as an athlete, no matter what sport you're in. You've got to know how to try and get what you want as an individual.

"And I feel like I'm in a very good place right now with the people I have around me, my team, people we have in different positions, team leaders, all of those things, and the work ethic of the whole team, which is really the most important thing at the end of the day."

'I'm in a similar situation to Verstappen last year'

A poor start to the season for McLaren appeared to have blown Norris' hopes of defending his title, but upgrades to the MCL40 have enabled him to win the last two races in Hungary and the Netherlands.

Norris' latest victory in Zandvoort reduced his deficit to championship leader Kimi Antonelli to 83 points with 11 rounds remaining. Norris, who is fourth in the standings, must also leapfrog Antonelli's Mercedes team-mate George Russell and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, who both trail the Italian by 59 points.

Comparisons have been made to last year's championship, when Piastri led Norris by 34 points and Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 104 points with nine rounds remaining, before losing form.

Norris ultimately won the title by two points from Verstappen, with Piastri finishing 13 points behind his team-mate.

Asked whether he can take anything from Verstappen's fightback last year, Norris said: "Just the fact that it's possible. Just the fact to keep believing, keep working hard, keep motivating the team in all the right ways. That's the biggest thing.

"He didn't do anything better than we were doing, apart from the fact we made some mistakes as a team in certain places."

Norris, who is currently 55 points ahead of seventh-placed Piastri, also perhaps hinted that he expects the team to prioritise him over his team-mate for the remainder of the season.

He continued: "There wasn't anything that we were doing wrong at the time. We just had two drivers fighting for our championship. They just had one.

"It's kind of a similar situation to what Mercedes are in now versus where I am.

"So, there's not a lot, I would say, to take from it, apart from just keep believing that it's possible until it's not. And that's the attitude we're going to fight with."

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