As Motorsport.com reports, the first major verdict of the 2026 Formula 1 season has finally been delivered. While George Russell and Lewis Hamilton remain mathematically in the title hunt, Lando Norris has officially been eliminated from contention. Trailing Kimi Antonelli by 154 points with only 125 points left on the table across the remaining grands prix in Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi, his reign as world champion is over. That means the coveted number 1 on his McLaren-Mercedes MCL40 has just a few more weeks left before its farewell tour concludes.
The writing was on the wall as early as the season opener in Melbourne, with Mercedes proving an extraordinarily tough nut to crack in 2026. Norris did not even make his first podium appearance until the fourth race in Miami. A late upgrade from McLaren in July offered a glimmer of hope, leading to victories in Hungary just before the summer break and in the Netherlands immediately afterward. Yet those wins proved to be a flash in the pan. The MCL40 is plagued by hardwired unpredictability, where fixing the balance on one set of corners causes it to vanish on the next.
A new low arrived at the Singapore Sprint, where Norris collided with his own team-mate Oscar Piastri. That incident triggered several stern lectures behind closed doors from a team run by Andrea Stella, leaving its mark on the relationship between Norris and the squad he has called home for so many years. Last weekend at the Circuit of the Americas, the 26-year-old seemed a changed man, shedding his usual ironic humour and sounding almost intimidated over the team radio.
When running behind Piastri with more pace, rather than firing back a typical driver demand for a position swap, Norris mumbled apologetically into his radio that he was being held up. Later, when advised to pit after the team detected a flat spot, he responded that he did not have a flat spot and told them they could do whatever they wanted, eventually adding a quiet, stubborn demand for no more calls. There was no outright aggression, just the tight-lipped silence of a driver retreating into monosyllabic communication.
Norris has never radiated the unshakeable self-confidence of Max Verstappen, nor does he possess the mystical aura of invincibility once held by Ayrton Senna. His openness about his doubts makes him likeable, but it also leaves him more vulnerable and easier to rattle. Whether his career will feature multiple titles or mirror Jenson Button's single glorious triumph followed by years away from the summit will depend heavily on the car beneath him, and on developing a thicker skin to handle the pressure.
