Lando Norris makes surprising claim over McLaren F1 car

Lando Norris has suggested McLaren's F1 car at the Hungarian Grand Prix last month showed better performance compared to any point during 2025.

Norris enjoyed a highly successful campaign last year, winning seven races en route to a maiden title.

The Woking-based squad was unable to carry over that form at the start of the new campaign and had to wait until round 11 in Hungary to get back to the top step of the podium.

At the Hungaroring, it brought a major update to the MCL40, leaving Norris to sing the praises of the performance it delivered.

“It was clear what the weaknesses are of the car, what was better with the car, but the performance we had on Sunday, especially, was probably a better performance than we had at any point last year,” he told media including RacingNews365.

“It still shows that we can kind of ebb and flow and still be a little bit more inconsistent than we were at times last season.”

However, there is no guarantee that the performance will carry over to this weekend's event at Zandvoort, where Norris won 12 months ago.

Norris insisted McLaren is still attempting to understand the car, but is hopeful he will be able to produce another strong result.

“We're still trying to understand everything perfectly with the car, but it's a track that I've enjoyed,” he said.

“I've always liked it, and we performed well here as a team in the past. So I'm hoping this weekend is the same again.

“In some ways, it's not too different to Budapest, but it's also different in different ways with the wind conditions.

“Obviously, much colder, so we have to just wait and see.”