Lando Norris says he’s feeling more comfortable with McLaren’s updated suspension but doesn’t expect to match his Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix performance every race.
The British driver heads to Silverstone brimming with confidence after holding off a strong challenge from his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in Austria.
He hopes to claim his first victory at his home circuit, explaining his feelings on the matter.
“Silverstone is special because it’s my home race, and it’s about the British fans, all those people, the Lando fans, all of them,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“It’ll be the one that puts the biggest smile on my face — even bigger than Monaco.
“It’s the race I’ve wanted to win since I was a kid and first started watching Formula One.”
His stronger showing at the Red Bull Ring came after a suspension update helped improve his feel with the car, helping him nail qualifying — a challenge all season, highlighted by his seventh-place start in Canada.
An update was first introduced in Montreal to address his qualifying woes and help restore his confidence from last year.
Despite feeling more comfortable with the car, Norris remains cautious about replicating his standout Austria weekend consistently.
“It’s definitely my goal to do something like that again. I think, especially from a qualifying point of view, my lap in Q3 was, like I said at the beginning, probably one of the best laps I’ve ever done in qualifying,” he added.
“I want to be confident that if I can replicate it, then no one can beat it. That’s how good it felt, but yes, I also know how hard it is to achieve that every single weekend in the first place; it’s a tricky one.
I don’t have the expectation that I’m going to do it every weekend. I have the desire but not the expectation to have a weekend like that every single weekend.”
Norris: Suspension update aims to enhance steering feel but results remain uncertain
The latest suspension update aims to improve how the 25-year-old feels the car through the front suspension and steering — a key area for his performance.
However, Norris admits it’s still too early to say if the change is definitively better.
“Honestly, if you ask me now whether it is better or not, I can’t give a definitive answer,” he explained.
“It’s something we believe might shift things in the right direction. That’s how small the change was. It wasn’t like we knew this would help or make us quicker. It’s not a performance item.
“It might change how the feeling is through the steering and front suspension. But since you go track to track, it’s not something you can just change between sessions.
“So, I can’t just give a clean answer to the team.”
Reflecting on his experience since the update, he added: “I certainly felt more in Austria. Canada is a very, very separate one and [the] cars [are] always all over the place in Canada, so it’s hard to judge things there.
“But certainly in Canada, I felt like we unlocked a little bit more, but I also don’t feel like I’m back to the level necessarily that I was at last year with feeling, understanding and things like that.”
The seven-time Grand Prix winner said he felt more comfortable, but not completely so, before explaining how he interprets feedback from the car:
“I’m also very much a driver who, I’ll say, feels most of my inputs, like most people, through the hands,” Norris said.
“There are obviously many other senses you try to use and combine in the car.
“A lot of it comes from vision and feeling through your body, legs, and feet, but my understanding of grip always comes through my hands and the steering wheel — for me, that’s the most sensitive area.”
READ MORE – How ‘accepting help’ from McLaren boosted Lando Norris in F1 Austrian GP
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