Lando Norris delivered a commanding response to recent frustrations as he stormed to victory in the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, but insisted he has “nothing to prove to anyone”.
Topping FP2 and FP3, landing a superb pole position on Saturday by a significant margin, and winning the Grand Prix – the only session Norris didn’t finish fastest in was FP1, simply because he didn’t even take part.
Norris put aside the qualifying issues that have plagued him this season and sealed the deal with a commanding lights-to-flag victory.
All while enduring a fierce battle with his McLaren counterpart, Oscar Piastri, handling the pressure expertly and cutting the deficit to the championship leader to just 15 points.
Such a high moment will surely go a long way to healing the scars left by the lows of Montreal, where a last-lap collision with his team-mate – breaking the golden rule of F1 – dented his confidence.
But Norris resurged in Austria to take his third win of the season and prove to many that this championship fight between the papaya duo is destined to go down to the wire.
When asked about his response to the disappointment in Canada and how the weekend in Austria felt in comparison, Norris made it clear: he had no critics to answer to.
“I mean, it’s certainly fulfilling for me – it gives me good confidence,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“I don’t need to prove any points or prove anything to anyone, honestly.
“I like to prove things to myself, probably more than anything. So certainly, it’s been a good clean weekend from FP2 onwards.
“Felt very comfortable and very on top of the car and performed exactly as I wanted to and as I needed to.
“I just had a clean weekend. That’s what I had. It’s not that I’ve not been able to do it before and the pace has always been there at certain points.
“It’s just there [have] been some different reasons for different things. But certainly, coming in today and yesterday to do the job that I did, I’m pretty happy with [it].”
Norris tackles qualifying struggles with renewed focus
On Saturday, Norris explained how the commanding performance on Saturday not only boosted his confidence but also reassured him that he can finally tackle the qualifying demons that have haunted him throughout the year.
And while the McLaren duo are closely matched in their head-to-head battles and both have secured nine podiums each, the key difference was in their qualifying consistency.
Piastri has yet to start a race lower than fifth, whereas Norris has slipped back on three occasions – in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and most recently Canada – where a few costly mistakes hurt his grid positions.
Norris was determined to address this issue, and with McLaren’s latest revised suspension update in Austria, he regained the self-belief and control needed to feel comfortable pushing the car to its limits once again.
It’s the result of his dedicated effort both on and off the track, which he believes is starting to pay dividends.
“It doesn’t come easily; it doesn’t come just because I’ve turned up this weekend and things are better,” he added.
“I’m working a lot. I’m doing a lot more work than I used to away from the track with the team, on the simulator, with my own team, trying to improve everything that I can, both on and off the track.
“I think it’s more [of] a positive thing to see a lot of those things paying off immediately.
“[A] good step in the right direction. Still need more, so want more. So, we’ll keep working.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris relieved McLaren put Canada clash ‘behind us’ with ‘stressful’ Austria F1 battle
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