Lando Norris: "I was never hard on others, always on myself"

(Motorsport-Total.com) - "Sometimes I have excuses for things. I'm never proud of using them – and 95 percent of the time, I think I could have done better, no matter what." These words from Lando Norris resonate.

They originate from an interview on the official Formula 1 website conducted before the Japanese Grand Prix and have since gained significance given the turbulent events that have occurred since then. Three Grands Prix, three conspicuous failures to score the maximum possible points.

It is entirely in keeping with the attitude of this self-proclaimed introvert that he is in a state of constant self-reflection and puts himself at the forefront of the line of his many critics in order to be the first to analyze his supposed weaknesses .

Some consider this tendency toward self-criticism a weakness—but for elite athletes, what matters is what works. And finding out what works is part of the journey.

Drivers who enter Formula 1 before the age of 20 spend much of their formative years in the public eye—with all the pressure, scrutiny, and distractions from all sorts of followers. Jenson Button, for example, was already in his seventh season when he took his first victory—and another two and a half years passed without another until he seized his big opportunity in 2009.

Button was 20 years old when he made his Formula 1 debut in Australia in 2000. At the time, he was the youngest British driver ever to compete in a Grand Prix and the subject of enormous media hype—it was still the era of the "New Lad."

He graced the covers not only of motorsport magazines, but also of men's magazines and, of course, the tabloids. He clearly enjoyed the fame—only to later learn the hard way that public admiration can turn into rejection with breathtaking speed if expectations aren't met.

How Lando Norris came into focus

Norris' career took a slightly different path: he entered Formula 1 as one of several British drivers and therefore did not have to carry the hopes of an entire nation while struggling with a series of uncompetitive cars.

But expectations have shifted: Formula 1 has become more global than ever thanks to the so-called "Netflix effect," and the profile and appeal of its drivers are less national. Moreover, Norris achieved his first Grand Prix victory last year in Miami – against a backdrop of growing fatigue from a long period of dominance by Red Bull and Max Verstappen.

Suddenly he found himself in the role of a title contender - something that even surprised his own team, because it took a while for them to get behind him.

Now McLaren has measurably the fastest car in the field, albeit with quirks that occasionally make it difficult to unlock its full potential - although these have proven nowhere near as treacherous as those of the Red Bull RB21.

While Norris is often superior to his teammate Oscar Piastri in race trim, he has difficulty achieving the perfect qualifying lap - in a season in which the differences between the top cars on a single lap are smaller than ever.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown explains: "It's really all about Q3. He doesn't need to go any faster—he's more than fast enough—but in the last few races he's really overdone it in Q3. He just needs to take it a bit more. He's got the car, he's got the talent."

"Maybe he should just try to force it a little bit less. But he's great. He's gotten a lot of poles, so I'm looking forward to Miami."

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella sees it similarly. "He's showing that his racing skills are absolutely brilliant," he says of Norris. "And as he himself said, we just need to polish the Saturdays a bit, and then we'll have some fun."

Verstappen also had to grow

But Norris's high-profile blunders and subsequent self-flagellation naturally provide ample ammunition for those critics who see his emotional openness as an affront to their understanding of masculinity.

This is interesting considering that Verstappen, who entered Formula 1 at just 17, also made many mistakes on his way to greatness. However, the passage of time and four world championship titles make these mistakes seem very small in the rearview mirror.

Hard to believe, but in Hungary in 2017, Verstappen publicly apologized to his then-teammate Daniel Ricciardo for cutting him off on the first lap. A year later, the picture was less clear—at least from the team's perspective—when Max retired both Red Bulls in Baku.

At the 2017 US Grand Prix, Verstappen self-critically listed his qualifying mistakes to the TV crews, calling it his worst of the year. In Monaco in 2018, according to Helmut Marko, he shed tears after damaging the right front suspension at the exit of the swimming pool complex—the damage cost him a qualifying session in which Ricciardo took pole.

That was just one of several chaotic moments at the start of the 2018 season—including the Baku crash, tussles with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain and China, and a costly spin in Australia. All of this is long gone today, but looking back in context, it's quite instructive.

"I was always very hard on myself," Norris tells formula1.com , "because I was never hard on others... I was never hard on my team, my mechanics, the car, or the setup. I always worked on myself first, rather than blaming someone else—and that's what made me who I am today."

"I think this way of thinking has its pros and cons. A lot of it is good because it makes me work on myself, and I think I'm very good at understanding myself and figuring out why something was good or bad."

"But there is also the downside, that sometimes you are too negative about yourself and slip into this bad world," the McLaren driver admits self-reflectively.

Similar problems, different perspectives

What is fascinating about the Verstappen-Norris duel - apart from a duel against Piastri - is how much their challenges overlap, while their different mindsets bring a very different perspective on the situation.

For Verstappen, the car is the problem – the team needs to improve it. Red Bull cites problems correlating simulation data, and this uncertainty is reflected in the RB21's fluctuating performance depending on the track and conditions. Max's perspective is therefore understandable.

The MCL39 is more consistent from track to track, but it also has weaknesses that the team is only beginning to understand. Norris sees himself as part of the problem, trying to adapt his driving style to the car's unpredictability at the limit—and this thought process leads to costly inertia in his steering inputs.

As team boss Andrea Stella explained after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - where Norris crashed in Q3 and had to start from 10th place - McLaren is beginning to understand where the problem lies and how to tackle it.

"Everything was set for a very strong weekend," said Stella. "But I think in Q3, when Lando was trying to gain a few milliseconds, we see, and we're now seeing this more clearly in the data, that the car wasn't responding the way he expected."

"This behavior surprises him in some ways. It's rather episodic... and it's an episode that, I think, is related to some of the changes we made to the car. These have made the car faster overall, but they have also taken away some of Lando's sense of predictability once he pushes the car to the limit," said the McLaren team principal's analysis.

According to Stella, while the MCL39 offers very high levels of grip thanks to improvements in aerodynamics and chassis, the transition from maximum grip to loss of control is abrupt. This sharpness could perhaps be softened with further developments—but until then, Norris will have to learn to deal with it.

"There's a lot of grip, and then it disappears," he explains. "You go 1 km/h faster—and the grip is gone. This transition is quite sharp, and the car's feedback in terms of understanding this limit is relatively blunt. Drivers almost have to guess how the car will behave—there's hardly any feedback."

Whether Piastri is better at this "guessing"—or simply not so desperate for that extra km/h—is something Stella naturally doesn't want to discuss publicly. But given the direction the 2025 season is taking, Norris needs to understand this issue if he wants to correct the mistakes that have held him back so far.