Lando Norris explains some ‘boring’ races have been his best in 2022

Lando Norris believes some of his less spectacular races in 2022 were actually amongst his most polished performances.

The British driver was the only representative of a team other than Red Bull, Ferrari, or Mercedes to climb onto the Formula 1 podium in 2022, courtesy of his third-place finish at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

That ‘best-of-the-rest’ theme continued for Norris throughout most of the season, with the 22-year-old frequently slotting in at the top of the midfield behind the three leading teams – often occupying a type of ‘no-man’s-land’ in the process.

It was Norris’ metronomic consistency that helped McLaren keep up their fight with Alpine in the Constructors’ Championship, with Norris scoring more than three times the points total of struggling team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, although McLaren would eventually lose that particular battle.

Despite having such an impressive season, on-track driving highlights were surprisingly few for Norris, as the British driver reflected on his best season in the sport to date.

Asked for where he felt McLaren’s best race came, Norris picked out Imola amongst his high points of the season.

“I would say Imola because it is the one that we achieved the most in,” said Norris, as quoted by GPFans.

“But I don’t think we were any quicker in Imola than we were in any other race. Singapore was a good weekend for us as a team (Norris P4, Ricciardo P5). As a morale booster, Singapore was perfect for us.”

But Norris freely admitted that 2022 hadn’t been as exciting for him as previous campaigns.

“Some of the boring races, where you probably didn’t see me on TV were some of my best ones,” he explained.

“Texas was a good one, getting Fernando [Alonso] with a couple of laps to go. Some of the boring ones have actually been some of my best races, nailing a strategy, consistency, nailing an A-to-B, start-to-finish.

“I just haven’t had as much excitement compared to the last few years.”

Andreas Seidl: Lando Norris clearly made another step in 2022

Norris was singled out for praise by McLaren CEO Zak Brown in an end-of-year review on the team’s social media channels, while 2022 team boss Andreas Seidl also highlighted Norris’ strengths and the important role the young British driver played during Seidl’s time working with him.

“There were different things which were impressing me quite a lot, obviously, in terms of pure performance inside the car, even if it’s not so visible in terms of results, because we simply were not that competitive compared to last year, he clearly made another step,” Seidl said.

“If I see how he’s approaching the weekends, how he’s pulling off the qualifying sessions, how he’s pulling off the races, it’s just impressive, knowing that he’s only in his fourth year in Formula 1.

“But also outside of the car, it was quite impressive how he was dealing with these challenges also of being part of the team this year, where it was a bit more challenging compared to the last three years where we always made these steps forward and could score some great results.

“Last year, [2021] he was very important for me as well, especially at the beginning of the season when we had this difficult start to make sure he helped me also in leading the team, staying positive, and keeping motivating everyone within the team in order to fight back as quickly as possible.”

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