World Champion Lando Norris is targeting a return to form at the Bahrain Grand Prix held at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit, the second leg of a triple header, after a collision with Franco Colapinto ended his Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend without points — only the second time this season he has failed to score.
Norris was eliminated from the Baku race through no fault of his own, but arrives at Sepang cautiously optimistic that the circuit’s characteristics will better suit the upgraded MCL40. The Sepang layout combines high-speed corners with long straights, and McLaren believes the package introduced in Azerbaijan will show more of its potential this weekend.
“All the upgrades are doing everything they should,” Norris said. “Obviously, it wasn’t our finest weekend as a team, and there were plenty of other areas where we were losing a lot of time, so we’re hoping it’ll show more this weekend.”
Norris acknowledged that straight-line speed remains a weakness for the MCL40 but expressed confidence that the higher-speed corners at Sepang would play more to the car’s strengths. “I expect them to work more here and to return a little bit back to normal again, if we can fix some of the problems, especially with my car I had last weekend,” he said. “I am hoping things return a little bit more back to normal.”
An additional variable this weekend is weather. Significant rainfall is forecast at Sepang — a first for the 2026 season — presenting Norris with an unfamiliar challenge in the current machinery. “I’ve not driven in the wet in this car, so it’s still a completely new experience for us,” he said. “Things have improved a lot since the beginning of the year, which makes some of the concerns less, but it is still a new experience. We have to be ready for it.”
Teammate Oscar Piastri, who along with Norris used McLaren’s simulator to prepare for a circuit that last appeared on the Formula 1 calendar nine years ago, offered a measured assessment of how useful that preparation can be. “For me, the sims, they help you identify your braking points, what gears you use, and how fast you can go,” Piastri said. “But it is not really a case of you do double the amount of work on the sim, and you get double the reward.”
Both drivers also found time to explore Malaysia alongside a group of fellow competitors during the brief break between races. “It was good fun to switch off from racing a bit, and it is very rare that you get so many drivers together spending time together away from the race track,” Piastri said.