Lando Norris has expressed that he is “almost happier” he sustained a bad start to 2025 as it shaped him into the driver who is closing in on a maiden Formula 1 title.
Norris goes into the last three races – starting with this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix – with a 24-point lead over his closest rival: McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.
The Briton commenced the campaign on top in Australia, but then went winless over the subsequent six events as he struggled to get to grips with McLaren’s MCL39.
Norris squandered vital points with mishaps over a single lap in China, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Imola and Canada that allowed Piastri to build up a margin over his rival.
However, the Woking-based squad helped to ease the problems Norris was encountering with a revised front suspension that has enabled him to get back to his best.
“It’s hard not to do a better job than what I was doing at the beginning of the season,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week in Las Vegas.
“I certainly struggled at the beginning of the year, and we’ve changed some little things on the car that we think – not all of them are even guarantees.
“The things with the front suspension and steering – some of it, we think it’s better, we think it’s going to help us and help me, but it’s not a guarantee. So that’s helped at times.
“And even when we put it on, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, this feels way better’. It was more like, we think it’s better. If you don’t feel anything, we’ll just leave it on because we think it’s better.
“But the rest of it is more up to me and just trying to figure it out myself and with the group of people that I have around me – my engineers, my full team.
“So I certainly feel like I’m doing a much better job. I certainly feel like I’m executing laps better in qualifying and performing very well in the races – good starts, good restarts, all of that, the smaller things, let’s say.
“So I’m definitely doing a better job, but it’s not come without the work behind it all.”
Norris opens up on improved mental resilience
But Norris has insisted that the turnaround that has seen him overcome what was a 34-point gap at one stage is not all down to changes to McLaren’s 2025 machine.
The now 11-time Grand Prix winner has pinpointed how the various hardships that he experienced earlier on in the campaign prompted him to become more resolute.
“Let’s say in terms of where I am now, a lot of the result of where I am now is from a mental side,” he addressed. “A lot of it is – I’m in this position because of the beginning of the season.
“Like, I’m almost happier that I had a pretty crappy beginning of the year – bar obviously a couple of races in Australia and things like that.
“But those difficult times certainly allowed me to focus, and I started to do a lot more work on all of those things to improve them, which has led me to be in this much stronger position.”
Elaborating, Norris explained that he has a better handle on his emotions when he endures setbacks, something that he attributes to the support network around him.
“I have a very strong – and I’m very proud to have – a very good group of people around me to support me, to direct me, help me in all of these different cases, whether it’s been a good weekend or a bad weekend,” he highlighted.
“People who always have my best interest at heart and are there to especially keep me and give me the right mentality when I’m down and I’ve not had a good weekend.
“So I feel like two reasons I’ve done well are: one, I’ve done a better job, so I’m performing better more often; and two, I’m not always more positive, but I’m more positive and less negative about when I have bad days and bad sessions. And I believe in myself a bit more that I can turn it around.
“There’ve been a lot of races this year when I’m like – I get post-qualifying even, and I’m a bit lost. Especially at the beginning of the year – just off the pace, don’t have an answer, don’t have a clear, ‘Okay, tomorrow I need to do this and I’ll be fine.’
“I’m just… timings of things are off, I’m not driving well. But then I turn it around – and I turn it around either into qualifying from practice, or I turn it around onto Sunday.
“And I’ve done that a good amount of times where I got to a point where even if I have a bad weekend now, I’m like, ‘Well, I’ve done it before against all the best drivers. I’ve been off, and I turned it around come the time it matters.’ And that’s a very reassuring feeling that I need.
“That is always very welcome, I think, as a driver to have when you’re inside the car – is that ‘I’ve done it before, I can do it again’ kind of attitude. So there’s, again, not been a key thing. There’s not been a ‘this’ or ‘that’.
“But like I said, a lot of work away from the track with different people. A lot of work at the track. But it all starts with my team around me.”
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