Norris has been a driver open about his own self-doubts in the past, but in racing to victory in Hungary last week, the British driver revealed a new level of confidence about his pace and ability to defeat Oscar Piastri.
Norris took pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest last weekend, but lost out on the first lap to a decisive overtake from McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.
But Norris wasn’t to be put off, and hounded his teammate relentlessly throughout the first half of the race before taking the lead when the Australian was baulked by a lapped Carlos Sainz in what was a costly incident for Piastri’s strategy choice.
Once free into the lead, Norris streaked away, while Piastri retired due to a gearbox failure shortly after.
The reigning world champion thus took his first grand prix win of the year, following on from his first pole position with the number one on his car.
He has previously revealed just how much he has doubted his own abilities, lacking in confidence against the likes of the unshakeable Max Verstappen, and that the question of whether he was truly good enough to be a world champion was one he had to ask himself throughout 2025.
But Norris did prove it in ’25, coming out on top of the battle with Piastri after the Australian enjoyed a much stronger first half of the year, and holding off a resurgent Verstappen in the process.
With Hungary suggesting that Norris’ new self-belief has unlocked a new level within himself in his title defence year, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said it’s evident to see where his driver has made leaps and bounds compared to 2025.
“I think Lando kept a trajectory going, a trajectory that he started last year after the first third of the season, in which he had experienced some very competitive weekends and some weekends in which he was struggling to extract the most from the car, or he might have struggled to capitalise on the performance in Q3,” he said.
“You may remember a couple of events in which this happened and also you may remember he was talking about not getting enough feedback from the car.
“There were highs and lows. There were some difficulties. There were clear learning points to review and learn from, and he embraced the challenge of doing so.
“So he worked on himself, first as a person. The group of engineers around him, all the entourage, was a great work of development from a personal and a driving point of view. So I think what we see here is just the continuation of this trajectory.
“I think that was an important point for Lando himself, and for the team working with Lando, to understand in which area we needed to improve to offer a car that Lando could trust, could drive without having to think too much, but, at the same time, it was also an opportunity to reflect on mindset, approach to racing, expectation, and emotional control.
“So I think it was an improvement in a very organic and holistic way for the driver and for the team around the driver, and the driver just kept this trajectory.
“He’s driving better this year because he was driving better at the end of the season last year compared to mid-season, and mid-season compared to the first third of the season.
“It’s just a trajectory that, as a professional athlete or a driver, you just have to keep going all the time, and this is not only for the driver, but also for all the people around the driver.
“When I see Lando technically driving now, I think he’s just more capable of having an awareness of what he wants and finding the ways to get it, either from the car or from the engineers or from adapting this driving style.
“So all this process of optimisation, I think, is just more robust.”
