Lando Norris is conflicted – up to a point, anyway.

He admits that the start to his and McLaren’s title defence this season has been “dreadful” in terms of reliability, while the pace “has not been terrible”.

But he accepts that, in hindsight, the difficulty they are going through this year has its roots in their success.

“I’m happy I have the pain of this year for the glory of last,” he says, as he sits down with BBC Sport for an extensive interview on the eve of the British Grand Prix.

It was very much not McLaren’s expectation that they would start 2026 unable, so far, to repeat the success they enjoyed in 2024 and 2025.

But they have realised that the energy put into achieving their title double last season under an intense late-season assault from Max Verstappen and Red Bull has had consequences.

Norris says: “We still put a lot of effort into making sure we were ready for this year. And we’re not as ready and as strong as we would have liked to have been.

“But certainly a good amount of trying to win the championship as a constructor and as a driver last year required a continued amount of dedication on the car of last season. When just more effort in other teams, teams that are doing well now, they just would have shifted more people, more focus would have gone to this year.

“So, it’s just the price you pay in a very competitive world against extremely good teams and clever people.

“And as soon as you’re just a little bit more focused on last season, especially in such a big transition of regulation, you pay the price pretty quickly.”

In performance terms, McLaren have started the season lagging behind pace-setters Mercedes, and fluctuating between second and fourth fastest team, depending on the race.

Their one chance of grand prix victory, when Norris was leading Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in Miami, was fumbled through a strategic error. Beyond that, continued reliability issues – some common to all teams with Mercedes engines, some at McLaren’s own door – have led to a series of retirements.

The result is Norris heads into his home race, which he won last year, in fifth place in the championship, 92 points off leader Antonelli.

“Expectations were high from my side, from us as a team,” Norris says. “Rightly so. But it’s just been more difficult than we would have wanted, for sure. From a power-unit side of things and from a car side of things.

“Should have won in Miami. So it’s not like we’re having a dreadful season. It’s been dreadful for one reason, reliability and issues. That’s been the biggest letdown of the whole year.

“But apart from that, the pace has not been terrible. And we can still go into weekends now with some confidence that we can have a good weekend. And that can mean a podium. It means extracting absolutely everything and being perfect the whole weekend. But it’s possible.”

The fact that he achieved his lifetime’s ambition has made it easier to cope with the struggles, he says.

“I’m still able to probably smile more, definitely able to smile more now even through the tough times because of last season,” Norris says. “So, I’m still basking in the moments of last season.

“But every driver is in it now because they want to win now. I’m not going to be happy finishing fifth, sixth, fourth the whole season. So, I enjoy winning. I want to return to winning. And that’s my goal currently.”

Not being able to defend his title – so far – has been “a little bit frustrating”, he acknowledges. But his love for McLaren is as strong as ever.

Norris, 26, has been mentored by Zak Brown, McLaren Racing’s chief executive officer, for well over a decade, since long before the American even thought about ending up in that role. And Norris has spent his entire F1 career so far – eight years and counting – with McLaren.

He has no intention of changing that for the foreseeable future. For Norris, winning is important, but it’s not everything.

“The thing that people don’t realise is I want to win races, and I certainly want to win here and now, and I want to win in the future, and you’ve got to think of both things in the world of Formula 1,” he says.

“But I’ll also at times choose happiness of place over maybe some unknown territory.

“There might be a year in Formula 1 where I’m very happy at McLaren. We might win, we might not. I’d rather stay here and enjoy my years at McLaren than maybe choose to go somewhere else where I could have a better chance.

“I’ll always try to be at a team that I can win with. And for a long time I’ve been with McLaren. I believed it could be McLaren.

“But for me there’s a fine line between just wanting to go out and win and also just wanting to be with people that I love to be with, a team that I love to be with, and fighting with them. And I’ve fought with McLaren since the beginning in a way.”

Might he be at McLaren for life?

“Quite potentially,” he says. “I’m not against it at all. I would love to be. I feel like I’m dedicated to them. They gave me my opportunity in the first place. We’ve won together. We want to win many more together. I don’t know how long I’ll be in Formula 1. But yeah, it’s certainly a possibility.”

Norris is under contract to McLaren at least until the end of next year – as is team-mate Oscar Piastri. But this is the time of year known in F1 as “silly season”, when speculation abounds about driver movements.

In the past week or so, Verstappen has been linked with McLaren, following a meeting between Brown and the Dutchman’s management. Brown, though, has since said he has “no intention” to change line-up and that “our plan is keep going with what we got”.

Norris says: “There’s always rumours. There’s always things up in the air. But I know that we both have our names penned in at McLaren for much longer. So it’s always funny seeing things come up when you’re questioning how it’s even possible.”

As unlikely as it happening seems, though, Norris says for the record that he would have no problem with Verstappen as his team-mate.

“I welcome anyone as a team-mate,” he says. “Of course, Max is, alongside Lewis (Hamilton) and Fernando (Alonso) – world champions, I would say – he’s alongside some of the best.

“You always want to try and prove yourself against the best. And the best way to prove yourself against the best is to have them as your team-mate. So I’m very open to anyone being my team-mate, honestly.

“I would love Max to be my team-mate. I would love if Lewis was my team-mate. I would love if Fernando was my team-mate. But I also like Oscar as a team-mate. You know, he’s honestly an unbelievable driver. I have a very strong team-mate that pushes me.”

Would Verstappen, used to Red Bull’s sole focus, fit in at McLaren, where equality is central to the team’s philosophy?

“It would certainly be a different vibe for him,” Norris says. “Philosophies and mentalities are certainly different between what Red Bull are and what we are. And there’s certain things that he would not be able to do at McLaren that he feels like he can do in Red Bull.”

As for his own performance this year, Norris says he has been “very happy”. He’s one point behind Piastri in the championship, but then he’s had three retirements to the Australian’s two.

In qualifying, the fight is as close as ever, but Norris is currently leading their head-to-head 7-4, and is ahead on pace by just 0.022secs.

“My performances this year have been, on average, better than last season,” he says. “I still find it a very complicated car to drive and difficult to understand session in, session out. Like, what is needed every single track, corner, set-up, what is needed to really get everything out of this car.

“So, we’re still struggling as a pair of drivers to understand that completely. But I feel like I’ve had a better start to the year than last year.

“Last year, that meant, you know, probably winning, like, leading the championship or not. This year, it means being within 80 to 100 points, you know?

Interestingly, there are parallels between Norris’ season last year, and fellow Briton George Russell’s in his own title fight with team-mate Antonelli this.

Like Norris, Russell won the opening race in Australia. Like Norris, Russell then went through a tricky patch, where his team-mate took a commanding lead.

The pair get on well – as do most of the generation of drivers who came up through the ranks at the same time – but Norris says they have not discussed this coincidence.

“Me and George are quite different in terms of personalities,” Norris says. “Yeah, he’s often more sneaky with things. I think I’m more just open with things.

“Kimi’s been doing a very good job. You also just have to give ‘hats off’ to your team-mate when he’s doing a good job.

“Oscar did an amazing job at times last year when he was beating me. I was like, ‘I’ve done a bad job and he’s doing a good job.’ I’m not afraid to say when someone’s doing a good job.

“Kimi’s been doing an incredible job this season. You know, at 19 years old, second year in Formula 1, it’s impressive what he’s doing. He’s also in Formula 1 for a reason, so I don’t think it should be a surprise.

“He’s going up against George and George is obviously having some ups and downs – he’s certainly had more problems and issues and setbacks than Kimi’s had. It’s hard to overcome them at times, especially when you feel like you’re on for a win or a pole or whatever it might have been.

“But he’s a smart person. I think he understands what is needed personally from his own side. And therefore, I’m confident that he can bounce back when he needs to.”

Norris says that to repeat his Silverstone win last year “we’ll need a hell of a lot of luck” but he’s still “very excited” about the weekend.

“It’s the one place that really makes you feel like you belong more than anywhere else,” he says.

“Of course, I feel like I belong in McLaren. I feel like I belong in Formula 1. But when you go to your home race, you really feel a sense of belonging because of the fans. And the kind of love you get, the support, the cheers, the t-shirts, all of it, my own grandstand. All of those things make you like, ‘Damn, this is pretty amazing.’

“The British Grand Prix is one of the best races of the season. But then it’s my home race. It’s our team’s home race. I’m champion. There’s just a lot of beautiful things to look forward to.

“It will be the race that I will miss the most one day. When I retire. In many years’ time. This will be the thing I miss, the fans. That kind of feeling of trying to provide for them in terms of giving them a win and providing for your country.

“That’s a pretty awesome thing. Therefore, I know I need to really take it all in as much as possible.”