Three grands prix, three conspicuous failures to come away with the maximum points available.<\/p>\n
It is entirely in keeping with the outlook of this self-confessed introvert that he should exist in a continuous state of reflection, barging to the head of the queue of his many critics to be first to dissect his perceived shortcomings.<\/p>\n
Some regard this tendency towards self-excoriation as a weakness but, for elite sportspeople, what matters is what works. Finding what works is, of course, part of the journey.<\/p>\n
Drivers who reach Formula 1 before the age of 20 do much of their growing up in public \u2013 with all the attendant pressures, scrutiny, and the distractions of sundry hangers-on. Jenson Button<\/a> was in his seventh season of F1 before he registered his first victory \u2013 and the next two and a half years remained barren until he seized his moment in 2009.<\/p>\n Button was 20 when he made his F1 debut in Australia in 2000. At the time, he was the youngest-ever British driver to start a grand prix and the subject of ridiculous levels of excitement, for this was still the era of the \u2018new lad.’<\/p>\n The young Brit adorned the covers of men\u2019s magazines as well as specialist titles and, of course, the newspapers. Button conspicuously enjoyed the trappings of fame \u2013 only to learn through bitter experience that when those in the public eye fail to fulfil expectations, adulation can pivot towards disdain with astounding rapidity.<\/p>\n Lando Norris, McLaren, and George Russell, Williams Racing<\/p>\n Photo by: Steven Tee \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Norris\u2019s career trajectory was\u00a0slightly different in that he arrived in F1 as one of several British drivers, so was excused the burden of carrying the hopes of a nation while labouring with a series of uncompetitive cars. But expectations have now shifted: F1 is more global than ever, owing to \u2018the Netflix effect,’<\/a> and drivers\u2019 profile and appeal is less parochial than before.<\/p>\n Plus, Norris achieved his first grand prix win in Miami last year against a background of increasing fatigue with a long period of dominance by Red Bull and his friend \u2013 now rival \u2013\u00a0Max Verstappen<\/a>. He found himself cast in the role of championship challenger \u2013 something which appeared to take even his own team by surprise, for it took long enough to throw its full weight behind him.<\/p>\n Now that McLaren<\/a> has measurably the fastest car on the grid, albeit one with foibles which makes that performance occasionally troublesome to access \u2013 if not with quite the same level of difficulty Red Bull\u2019s RB21 presents its pilots. But while Norris has often had the upper hand over team-mate Oscar Piastri<\/a> in terms of race pace, delivering the perfect qualifying lap is proving problematic in a season where the margins between the leading cars on single-lap pace are smaller than before.<\/p>\n Norris\u2019s high-profile mishaps and subsequent bouts of self-flagellation have, naturally, provided much ammunition for that segment of his critics who find his emotional literacy an appalling affront to their masculinity.<\/p>\n Everyone makes mistakes\u00a0<\/p>\n This is interesting since Verstappen, who was but 17-years-old when he arrived in F1, also had an error-strewn ascent to greatness. The passage of time and four world championships simply render them smaller specks in the rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n Astounding to think of it now, but in Hungary in 2017 Verstappen publicly apologised to his then team-mate Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> for nerfing him off on the first lap of the race. A year later the picture of responsibility was rather muddier (at least so far as team bigwigs were concerned) when the young Red Bull driver took them both out in Baku.<\/p>\n At the US GP in 2017, Verstappen catalogued his own shortcomings in qualifying to TV crews after the session, describing it as his worst of the year. In Monaco in 2018 he was in tears \u2013 according to Helmut Marko \u2013 after clipping his front-right wheel against the inside barrier at the exit of the swimming pool section; the damage ruled him out of a qualifying session where Ricciardo put his car on pole.<\/p>\n That was just one of several messy moments at the start of the 2018 season, along with the Baku shunt, tangles with Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and Sebastian Vettel<\/a> in Bahrain and China, and a costly spin in Australia.<\/p>\n Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB14 and Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB14 crash<\/p>\n Photo by: Sutton Images<\/p>\n Ancient history now, of course, but nevertheless instructive in context.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve always been very hard on myself,” said Norris in the formula1.com interview, “because I\u2019ve never been hard on anyone else\u2026 I\u2019ve never been hard on my team, my mechanics, the car, the setup.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve always worked on myself more than I\u2019ve ever blamed anyone, let\u2019s say, and that\u2019s just made me into the person that I am.<\/p>\n “I think there are pros and cons of that kind of mentality\u2026 A lot of it has been good, because it makes me work on myself, and I think I\u2019m very good at understanding myself and figuring out why this was good and that wasn\u2019t good, but there\u2019s the negative side of sometimes being too negative on yourself, and kind of getting into that bad little world.”<\/p>\n What is fascinating about the battle between Verstappen and Norris \u2013 setting aside the potential battle between Norris and Piastri for now \u2013 is the extent to which their challenges overlap, while their differing mindsets dictate a different perspective on the scenario.<\/p>\n For Verstappen, the car is the problem and the team needs to improve it. Red Bull has pointed to correlation problems with its simulation tools, and that air of uncertainty is writ large in the RB21\u2019s performance swings in different venues and running conditions. Verstappen\u2019s position is, therefore, understandable.<\/p>\n The MCL39 is more consistent from venue to venue, but it also has vices that the team is just beginning to understand. Norris sees himself as part of the problem, since he is trying to adapt his driving style to work around the car\u2019s unpredictability at the limit, and this thought process adds costly inertia to his control inputs.<\/p>\n Understanding where the problem lies\u00a0<\/p>\n As team principal Andrea Stella explained after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where Norris crashed out in Q3 and had to start from 10th on the grid, McLaren is developing an understanding of where the problem lies and how to mitigate it.<\/p>\n Lando Norris, McLaren<\/p>\n Photo by: Steven Tee \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n “It was all ready for a very strong weekend,\u201d said Stella, \u201cbut I think in Q3, when Lando tries to squeeze a few more milliseconds out of the car, what we see \u2013 and I think we are starting to see this even better in the data, in terms of identification of what is going on \u2013 the car doesn’t respond as he expects.<\/p>\n “This is a behaviour that kind of surprises him. In a way it’s quite episodical\u2026 and it’s an episode that I think starts from some of the work we have done on the car.<\/p>\n “It made the car faster overall, but I think it took something away from Lando in terms of predictability of the car once he pushes the car at the limit.”<\/p>\n Stella\u2019s view is that the MCL39 has high grip levels \u2013 owing to that work done on aero and suspension dynamics \u2013 but the shift from peak grip as drivers reach the limit is very abrupt. Development might soften this edge but, to an extent, Norris must learn to live with it.<\/p>\n “There’s a lot of grip, then the grip disappears,” he said. “You go 1km\/h faster and the grip disappears.<\/p>\n “This transition seems to be quite sharp, and the feedback you receive from the car in terms of understanding and leaning on this limit is relatively numb. I think that’s where the drivers almost have to use a lot of guessing as to how the car will behave and there’s not much information and cueing coming from the car.”<\/p>\n Whether Piastri is better at this \u201cguessing\u201d \u2013 or simply not reaching so desperately for that extra kilometre per hour or so \u2013 is a topic Stella is naturally unwilling to bring into the public domain.<\/p>\n Given the direction of travel in the 2025 season, it is one Norris needs to understand if he is to erase those errors that have been holding him back.<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n In this article<\/p>\n Stuart Codling\n<\/p>\n Formula 1\n<\/p>\n Lando Norris\n<\/p>\n McLaren\n<\/p>\n Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Sometimes I have excuses for things, I\u2019m never proud of using any of them \u2013 and 95% of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,1711,1710,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-60248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-lando-norris","12":"tag-mclaren","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114421361846874638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Lando](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/lando-norris-mclaren-and-georg-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Max](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/f1-azerbaijan-gp-2018-max-verstappen-red-bull-racing-rb14-and-daniel-ricciardo-red-bull-ra.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Lando](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1745931311_334_lando-norris-mclaren.jpg\")
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