Shortly after winning his first Formula 1 title, Lando Norris has already made his first important decision for the coming F1 season. This also forces the dethroned world champion, Max Verstappen, to take action. Lando Norris has confirmed that he will compete in Formula 1 with the number 1 next year.

“It’s tradition. There’s a reason for it. It exists because you can get it if you work hard for it,” he told Sky Sports.
Until now, the 26-year-old had raced with the number 4. In the past four seasons, world champion Max Verstappen started with the number 1.

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Norris wants to reward his team

“All of us as a team who play a role at McLaren or on my car will wear it with pride. That goes for all my mechanics, my engineers, simply everyone who is part of McLaren. They also deserve this recognition,” Norris continued.

“So it’s not just about me, it’s about them too. It’s their pride in knowing that they’ve put a lot of work and effort into everything, and can now say, ‘We’re number one’. It’s not so cool when you say, ‘We’re number four’, so they’ll be even happier than me!”

A world champion can, but doesn’t have to, drive with the number 1. Lewis Hamilton once decided against it and opted for 44.

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Which number will Verstappen choose?

Now that Norris is snatching the number 1 away from Verstappen, the Dutchman will have to switch to a different number in 2026.

In the years before his title, Verstappen had started with the number 33. In Las Vegas, he had stated that 3 was actually his favourite number.

“That’s a very good question! I’ll look into it over the winter, but my favourite number is 3. We’ll just have to see if that’s even possible,” he said around the time of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

In addition, the change requires permission from the FIA: “You need approval first, because the number is not officially available yet,” Verstappen explained.

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Verstappen Wants Ricciardo’s Old F1 Number

Max Verstappen has his eye on Daniel Ricciardo’s former number 3; however, speaking to Dutch media in Las Vegas, Verstappen admitted he will see if he can make it happen.

Under current FIA rules, a driver’s personal number is only freed up if they have been out of F1 for two full seasons. Ricciardo last raced in 2024, meaning Verstappen would need special FIA approval to take over #3. His chances may be helped by Ricciardo’s full retirement from motorsport.

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Verstappen also revealed he once wanted #69, joking

“My dad said that’s not a good idea… but it would be great for marketing — the number always looks the same!” – He also likes #27, but noted that Nico Hülkenberg already uses it.

Driver-number rules were discussed at the most recent F1 Commission meeting, with the FIA confirming that proposals to allow mid-career number changes were put forward — reportedly at Red Bull’s request.

If approved, Verstappen could drop both #1 and #33, and take over Ricciardo’s trademark #3 from 2026.

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NEXT ARTICLE – Mercedes boss admits relationship with Hamilton was breaking down

Lewis Hamilton left his Mercedes Formula One team after twelve seasons of huge success together. In fact in F1 history the partnership between the team and the seven times champion was the most successful ever.

Yet following the failure by Mercedes to pit Hamilton at a crucial time in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which cost him a record eight drivers’ title, Hamilton was never the same driver again.

In 2022 Lewis failed to win a Grand Prix for the first time in his career and as if to add insult to injury, he was outscored by his new junior team mate, George Russell, who won his maiden Grand Prix in Brazil to clinch the inter-team mate battle.

 

Hamilton vocal over Mercedes failings

That year saw a big change in the FIA car design regulations as the new ground effect car specifications changed the face of F1 racing and Mercedes, unlike in 2014, missed the brief. Much was expected of the zero pod W13 car design, but early F1 analysts expectations were quickly dashed.

“We got it wrong,” Hamilton complained early season after being lapped by Max Verstappen at the Emilia Romagne Grand Prix. “Nothing we do…seems to work” said Lewis after a difficult Friday session in Montreal. “We’re trying different set-ups… for me it was a disaster”.

As George Russell became the points leader out of the Mercedes driver’s, Hamilton’s narrative was that he was the driver doing extreme setup experiments to help the team understand the car. “We are obviously not fighting for the championship. But we are fighting to understand the car and improve and progress through the year,” Hamilton claimed at the British Grand Prix.

Whilst in 2023, Hamilton was able to beat his team mate, it was yet another winless season for the British driver. Come the early European season, Hamilton was publicly criticising the team for failing to listen to him in terms of improving the handling characteristics of the W14…READ MORE ON THIS STORY