Lando Norris reveals key insight into improved form…and it’s not just the car

Lando Norris feels “the most on top of the car I ever have been” which the McLaren driver puts down to working on his weaknesses with the MCL60.

Bitterly disappointed at missing out on a chance at pole position in Friday’s qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix, Norris’ Q3 was undone by McLaren’s timing as a storm set in, the Briton bounced back to put in an incredible Saturday.

Not only did he secure pole position for the Sprint, his first P1 in the shortened format, but he followed that up with a second-placed finish in the race only losing out to the rampant Max Verstappen.

Lando Norris: I definitely feel most on top of the car than I ever have been

The runner-up result was his sixth top-three finish in six race weekends with four Grand Prix podiums and two in the Sprints.

It’s been a meteoric rise for the British driver after a wretched start to the season where he scored just 12 points in the first eight races. At race nine, Austria, McLaren introduced their first big upgrade of the season, and the rest as they say is history.

Norris has scored 164 points since Austria, clawing his way to sixth in the Drivers’ standings ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes driver George Russell.

It’s fair to say though, that it’s not just the car that’s improved, Norris too has taken leaps forward.

“Obviously, I know probably a bit more than what everyone sees, but my last few weekends have been very strong,” he said after Saturday’s Sprint. “I probably say like the last four or five weekends have been my strongest in terms of absolute pace and extracting the maximum out of the car.

“I just made those silly little mistakes here and there in qualifying, whether it was Mexico or previous races.

“But a lot of these times the pace was probably some of my strongest and the best I’ve been driving, if it wasn’t for these little things.

“The last two, three weekends, I feel like I’ve been on top of things a lot more. And I have felt very comfortable.

“There’s still a lot of things which I’m not comfortable with but I definitely feel most on top of the car than I ever have been.

“Some of that is figuring out weaknesses that I have with the car and just things that I’m struggling with. And some of it is just confidence and putting things together and executing laps and executing good races and things like that.

“I don’t think it’s just this weekend or anything’s suddenly changed. But here, Mexico, Suzuka, Texas, Qatar, I think all of these have been some very good races, very good performances, extremely good pace, probably in every single one but just a few too many of these little mistakes.”

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And it’s those little mistakes that hurt Norris.

A driver who is known for being hard on himself, to the point Nico Rosberg offered to counsel him, Norris says acknowledging his disappointment when things don’t work out is only speaking the “truth”.

“Of course, then I’m disappointed at times and I always say I should have been on pole or I should have been second and there just have been a lot of should-have, would-have, could-haves, which I understand, but it’s because it’s the truth,” he said.

“I think today we proved it, but yesterday we probably should have been on pole if we did as good of a job as we did today. That same goes for us in Qatar.”

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