Lando Norris admits that he must “tidy things up” after lamenting another missed opportunity at last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.
Having been tipped as a contender for pole position, Norris endured a scruffy qualifying in Mexico, being caught out by a late yellow flag that resigned him to a Q1 elimination.
But Norris was able to mount a late charge that included a spate of opportunistic overtaking moves beyond a red-flag stoppage midway through to recover to fifth.
While he admitted that it was as “perfect a day as I could have asked for”, the Briton rued a compromised qualifying that stymied him from exploiting the pace that only Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton trumped.
“People complain why I’m so disappointed at times, but it’s because of days like today,” he issued. “Of course I’m going to be disappointed. There’s a chance to finish on the podium, get another trophy and score more points. Why would I ever be happy if I had a day like yesterday?”
Norris was exceptionally critical of his display across the Qatar Grand Prix weekend, rueing errors in both qualifying sessions that squandered potential poles and race wins.
Despite being on a run of four consecutive podiums prior to Mexico, the 23-year-old concedes that he has been throwing away too many promising openings recently.
“I moved on very quickly, I moved on better than I did in Qatar,” Norris addressed.
“We put a lot of focus on today and I think that was evident and paid off. I’m never going to be happy after a day like yesterday because I know what we are capable of doing and when you have a day like today, you think of the what could have been.
“There’s too many what could have been at the minute. I need to tidy some things up and then things can start to roll.”
After Qatar, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella asserted he wasn’t concerned by Norris’ harsh self-reflection, insisting that he’ll learn to channel his frustration better.
But Norris contends that his calmer approach to dealing with his Saturday disappointment at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez derived from the reduced stakes.
Asked if he was able to learn lessons from Qatar and apply them last weekend, Norris answered: “Yeah, again similar thing but that was for higher positions and that was twice.
“It would be the same for anyone. If anyone was in my position, maybe some people are a bit better than others.
“You’re never going to be happy when you’ve messed up. You’ve let the team down, you know, there’s 700-800 people relying on me to do a good job so, when you don’t, how can I put a smile on my face, right?
“I think I dealt with it a lot better than I did last time, mainly because it wasn’t for a pole or a win. But at the same time, I moved on, got my head down onto today and it paid off so I’m happy with that.”
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