Only a few months have passed since the Abu Dhabi finale, but the 21-year-old Brit is already back in action for the 2026 pre-season.
“I’m excited for everything! Do I wish I had one more month to lay back and enjoy everything, take everything in? It was a few weeks off of just trying to realise what happened last year. It had become a reality, my dream,” said Norris, via the official F1 website.
“I think I’m still even now trying to just accept it, and to realise that it’s happened. At the same time, it’s back to work, and now we’ve got to try and do it all over again.
“It makes me happy, it gives me good confidence coming into this season, but it’s such a different, such a big challenge with all the regulations, all the changes this year.
“I feel good. I’m happy. I’ve accomplished something huge in my life.”
Norris appeared in high spirits at last week’s Barcelona Shakedown, sporting the number 1 on his McLaren MCL40. Over the three-day programme, he completed a healthy number of laps, giving the team plenty of data to work with ahead of the new season.
Despite the rapid turnaround from champion to pre-season testing, Norris’s smile suggested he is relishing the challenge of F1’s all-new era of regulations.
Speaking after the Shakedown, he expressed satisfaction with the start of McLaren’s 2026 preparations and excitement for the year ahead, signalling that his focus has already shifted from celebration to competition.
“It’s so easy to get caught up into comparisons, just because we’re all competitive so you always want to see yourself doing well and feeling like you can be quick, but I think we understood a lot, both in lower-fuel stuff, higher-fuel stuff, the tyres,” added Norris.
“Just what we came here to do, really, [which] is to understand the car, especially from a reliability point of view – make sure that all the sensors are working as they should, the PU’s working as it should, the gearbox, whatever it is.
“[Making sure] everything is just doing what we expect, because reliability is one of the most important things, so a lot of it’s from that side, and a lot of it is stuff over the next few days and weeks the team will look into and try to improve on and make better.
“And from my side, just to get back comfy with the car, some little bits I need to change here and there, but otherwise it still feels like a race car, still feels fast and still enjoyable.”
