Norris reveals how the wind direction helped him against the Ferrari drivers
Lando Norris claimed his first pole position of the 2026 Formula 1 season for the Hungarian Grand Prix, edging Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc after the Scuderia had appeared to hold the upper hand throughout Friday's practice sessions.
Ferrari dominated both free practice sessions on Friday, while McLaren struggled to match the Italian outfit's pace, particularly in the final sector of the Hungaroring.
However, conditions changed overnight, and Norris revealed that a shift in the wind direction played a significant role in turning McLaren's fortunes around.
"We pretty much changed nothing, honestly, from yesterday to today," Norris explained after qualifying. "Just the wind changed, like Charles said, and the wind direction favours the overall direction of the circuit."
According to Norris, the altered conditions especially improved McLaren's performance through the middle sector, while also masking one of the team's biggest weaknesses in the final part of the lap.
"It makes Sector 2 a lot better. We were so quick in Sector 2 yesterday, honestly, but it certainly helped us in Sector 3 today because we lack rear grip compared to the Ferraris in very slow speed, or just overload, I would say, at very slow speed."
Ferrari had consistently been quicker through the final sector on Friday, where the Hungaroring's slow-speed corners exposed McLaren's lack of rear grip.
Norris believes the more favourable wind reduced those losses enough to allow him to fight for pole.
"Having the wind in a better direction for some of these corners and the entry to the last corner limited our losses, let's say," he said. "I think we still struggled there compared to them. Sector 3 was always our worst sector by a huge margin. It was just less so today."
Rather than making overnight setup changes, McLaren deliberately kept the car unchanged and waited to see how much the evolving weather conditions would influence its behaviour.
"So, we didn't change the car," Norris revealed. "We went from really struggling with the balance yesterday, with the rear, to just saying, 'let's see what the wind does overnight and see how much it can help us out.' It certainly helped us out quite a big amount."
The Briton admitted that the dramatic improvement underlined just how sensitive the current generation of Formula 1 cars is to changing wind conditions, particularly for a McLaren that continues to battle rear-end instability.
"So, it shows how sensitive the car is to the wind, and I think the cars in general are sensitive to the wind," Norris said.
"But because we suffer with the rear, and we suffer with the rear more than these cars, today suited us maybe a little bit more. It just helped us out a little bit more."
