Is the World Cup win knocking Norris out? “He seems tired. He’s never had a break.”

Lando in difficulty The Formula 1 World Championship wears out those who don’t win it, one could say paraphrasing the famous phrase referring to power and attributed to Giulio Andreotti. But perhaps, in certain cases, the stress of the Circus wears down those who reach the top even more and perhaps are unable to best manage all the attention that is reserved for them once they have achieved their lifelong goal. This could be what is happening to Lando Norris, reigning world champion, in this first phase of the 2026 season. This interesting interpretation was suggested by F1 TV commentator Alex Jacques, who during an analysis published on the official Formula 1 YouTube channel which examined the performance of each of the 11 teams on the grid at the start of the season, expressed doubts about Norris’ performance. The Englishman is yet to reach the podium, becoming the first reigning world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2009 not to score a single top-3 finish in the first three GPs of the year. Furthermore, he currently has only four points more than Oscar Piastri in the standings despite his Australian teammate not taking part in the first two Grands Prix of the year, while Norris missed ‘only’ the Shanghai race due to technical problems. Too many events, no rest Jacques’ impression is that Norris ‘squeezed himself’ too much during the winter, participating in all the post-title celebration events without dedicating the right amount of time to rest and physical recovery. “He accepted all the invitations he received as world champion – observed Jacques – and he enjoyed his status as world champion. But if you do this and then you already have the first shakedowns at the end of January, you don’t have a real winter break.” To support this reasoning there would also be the words spoken by Norris himself in Barcelona, ​​when the Englishman admitted that he would have liked a longer winter break. According to Jacques, another problem for Norris would be linked to his lack of understanding of the new technical regulation: “At times, observing him in the paddock, he seemed to me to be a slightly tired driver who still has a lot to learn about these regulations. I believe that there are different levels of motivation in the paddock for the different drivers”, concluded the F1 TV commentator. It now remains to be assessed whether this forced stop, imposed by the cancellation of the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, may have somehow helped the McLaren champion to recover his physical and mental energy.