Lando Norris reveals Declan Rice’s lap time in the McLaren Formula 1 simulator
Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice recently visited the McLaren F1 factory in Woking and tried the team’s simulator. He was accompanied by reigning world champion Lando Norris as two of Britain’s most prominent sportsmen came face-to-face.
Photo by Michael Regan - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice recently visited the McLaren F1 factory in Woking and tried the team’s simulator. He was accompanied by reigning world champion Lando Norris as two of Britain’s most prominent sportsmen came face-to-face. Rice has been capped 72 times by England and will be crucial to the team’s hopes of winning the World Cup this summer.
While Norris’ hopes of retaining the F1 title have been hit by Mercedes’ dominance at the start of the 2026 season, Rice is currently chasing his first Premier League winners’ medal with Arsenal. Lando Norris rates Declan Rice’s performance in the McLaren simulator Rice took on the Silverstone circuit, home of the British Grand Prix, and set a best lap time of around one minute, 37 seconds once he was familiar with the layout. For context, Max Verstappen’s pole position time at last year’s race was 1:24.
892, though the 2026 F1 cars are a little slower. “He got better,” Norris told BBC Sport . “You’ve got to start somewhere.
He didn’t know Silverstone as a track, so once he learnt it, he improved a lot. In the end, your final lap was pretty good. ” Rice replied: “1:37 wasn’t a bad lap.