Lando Norris reveals the key performance change driving F1 2026 cars

It was a “surreal” moment for Lando Norris as he drove out of the McLaren garage at the Barcelona circuit with the number ‘1’ on his MCL40 as the reigning World Champion.

Wednesday’s running marked McLaren’s first of three days out on track at the Circuit de Catalunya shakedown, with Norris revealing his first impression of the new cars is that they are slower in the corners, but quicker when it comes to acceleration and straight-line speed.

Lando Norris’ first verdict on ‘pretty different’ F1 2026 cars

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Putting all new cars on the track this season, the Formula 1 teams scheduled a five-day behind-closed-doors shakedown in Spain with the teams permitted to run on three of the five days.

McLaren opted not to run on Day One and Two, giving the Woking team added time to work on the MCL40.

The car broke covers on Wednesday with Norris behind the wheel of his number ‘1’ branded car, the Briton completing 77 laps, covering a total of 358.589 “productive” kilometres.

While official information from the circuit is sparse, unofficial times had the reigning champion third fastest behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. He was reportedly just under a second off the pace.

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“It was just nice to be back, nice to see a number one on my car, pretty cool and pretty surreal still,” he said as per F1.com. “It’s a good feeling.

“Our first day on track, our first time that everyone got to see the car in one piece. It’s literally not been built until this morning. It’s an incredible thing. Nice to see it all come together, nice to see all the hard work that everyone does to make that car.

“And then I go and have some fun driving it which turned out to be a decent day.

“Today was really just a first understanding of the whole car, understanding just how it works really, going through the manual of everything.

“A productive day, but it was one about really just figuring everything out, ensure things are working as they should. Understanding things, getting our first picture.

“So, yeah, good day for me, just to be back driving again, understanding some of the differences. But a good one for the engineers, the mechanics, the whole team, to get the first look on the regulations of this year.”

The Briton went on to reveal a few interesting details about the new cars and the speeds he experienced on Wednesday.

A special day for the team, seeing our MCL40 rollout for the first time 🥹#McLarenF1 | #F1 🧡 pic.twitter.com/ck4Lg8C4TH

\— McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team 🧡 (@McLarenF1) January 28, 2026

This year’s cars are shorter, lighter and feature active aerodynamics and are powered by a new engine formula with a 50/50 split between electrical and internal combustion power.

Amidst claims last season that the cars could hit a top speed of 400km/h at top speed, Norris said while his McLaren felt slower in the corners compared to last season’s MCL39, it had better straight-line speed and acceleration as he was hitting “340, 350” faster than he did last year.

“It’s pretty different. Not even a huge step,” he revealed.

“I think it’s just a bit of a step slower in terms of cornering speeds. In terms of like acceleration and straight-line speed it probably feels quicker than it did last year. You get to 340, 350, quite a bit quicker than we did in previous years.

“So, yeah, it’s a bit more of a challenge in many places, which is a good thing, but you have a bit more to understand from the battery, the power unit, all of those things are in some ways more complicated and just different.

“And whenever something’s different, it always takes a bit of time to figure out the best way to look at it, to manage it, to use it. But that’s what these days are for.

“So, yeah, I think we got a good understanding today. This is still going to take a while, the conditions here are quite different to what they’re going to be in Bahrain or they’re going to be in Melbourne, but it’s just trying to gather as much information in every condition possible, whether it’s going to rain in the next couple of days or be dry or whatever, the more laps we can do, the better.

“So yeah, nice to be back. Different feelings. Of course, still feels like a McLaren, but yeah, still feels powerful. So it feels like a Formula One car, which is the most important thing.”

Oscar Piastri is behind the wheel of the MCL40 on Thursday.

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