Lando Norris has noticed the difference. When he speaks in Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) meetings now, the room listens in a way it did not before.

The McLaren driver, who became the 35th F1 World Champion in the Abu Dhabi finale last December, told RacingNews365 that his new status has given him more pull inside the drivers’ association, and he is clear-eyed about what he uses it for.

“Obviously, I’m part of that, and maybe people listen to my voice more now than previously, and that’s something that just comes with, I guess, the credit of winning the world championship,” Norris said.

“But it’s not something I think you expect, but it is just respect, I think, at the end of the day, and that’s a cool thing to earn through your career.”

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The GPDA is chaired by former F1 driver Alexander Wurz, with George Russell and Carlos Sainz the two current driver directors. Legal adviser Anastasia Fowle sits as the fourth director, the first non-driver appointed to the role.

Norris described to RacingNews365 how that structure feeds back to the grid.

“The GPDA is obviously represented by a few drivers, but the input that they put in is our input as drivers.”

“So it’s not that they just decide what they want to decide; they decide what we decide as a collection of drivers.”

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‘Drivers and fans more than rules’

Pressed on whether a louder voice risks tipping decisions his way, Norris pushed back.

“I still want the best for the sport. I’m never biased. I would say anything I do, I do for what I want the sport to be.”

He then qualified the point.

“I’m biased towards drivers and fans more than rules and things like that.”

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The admission matters in a year the drivers’ body has not stayed quiet. Wurz has told the Lift and Roast podcast the GPDA WhatsApp group was “absolutely blowing up” with ideas on fixing the 2026 regulations, and Norris himself has been one of the louder voices on the new power unit’s energy management, calling the racing it produces “yo-yoing”.

Sixth in the standings, 139 behind the leader

Norris is wearing the number 1 on a McLaren for the first time since Jenson Button carried it in 2010, but the on-track story has been harder than the switch of digits.

He sits sixth in the 2026 drivers’ standings on 201 points, 139 behind championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with two wins (Hungary in July and Zandvoort in August) set against four retirements. His last weekend ended with a sprint-race collision with teammate Oscar Piastri in Singapore that drew public rebukes from team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown, who made clear they were unhappy with the incident.

The next chance to reset is at Circuit of the Americas. Lights out at the United States Grand Prix is at 3pm local time on Sunday, 25 October, with qualifying the day before at 4pm local time.

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