Lando Norris has explained how he plans to tackle the issues he has been facing with his McLaren challenger at this weekend’s Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
Norris has been open about his difficulty to become at one with the MCL39, which has seen him fall behind team-mate Oscar Piastri in the Drivers’ standings.
The Brit solidified his pre-season credentials as championship favourite with a win at the opening round in Australia, but since then, things have gone somewhat awry.
Norris has failed to win since, with Piastri taking three wins to leapfrog him and lead the title race by 10 points.
Speaking to the official F1 website, Norris admitted that his sense of perfectionism and being his own worst critic has perhaps stunted his progress.
“I’m probably putting a bit too much pressure on myself at the minute, not because of any [particular] reason, and not because of the championship and all these things,” he said.
“I just put too much pressure on myself because I want to do well – like I want to do so well.
“I want to be on pole, I want to win, I want to be perfect. I think I need to accept a little bit more that I’m not going to be perfect, and I’m making mistakes because I’m trying to be perfect, rather than the other way around.
“I think I just need to chill out a little bit and have a bit more trust in my speed, because my speed [in Saudi Arabia], and my speed in every race this season, has been, I think, the best. I’m very confident that I can win the races if I just give myself a better chance on Saturday.”
‘Utilising’ mental frailties the key to success?
Norris also expanded on his own mental struggles, his honesty on which saw him gain public praise from Sebastian Vettel prior to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
He explained that taking his own natural psychological process and putting a positive twist on it, rather than a negative one, will hopefully help him overcome them.
“I’ve always been very hard on myself, because I’ve never been hard on anyone else… I’ve never been hard on my team, my mechanics, the car, the set-up,” he said.
“I’ve always worked on myself more than I’ve ever blamed anyone, let’s say, and that’s just made me into the person that I am.”
Norris has made a number of self-critical comments in recent races, saying after a poor qualifying performance in Bahrain that he felt like he had “never driven an F1 car” before.
In Jeddah, immediately after crashing early in Q3 – when he looked a good bet for pole position – he told his team over radio that he was an “idiot.”
“I think there are pros and cons of that kind of mentality…” Norris explained. “A lot of it has been good, because it makes me work on myself, and I think I’m very good at understanding myself and figuring out why this was good and that wasn’t good, but there’s the negative side of sometimes being too negative on yourself, and kind of getting into that bad little world.
“I’ve learned to utilise it in a good way, and especially over the last half a year, year, I’ve tried to optimise it and use it in terms of making me better – rather than use it, acknowledge it and let it affect me in a negative way.
“It’s more how can you turn it into something positive? That’s something I’ve not been good at until the last year or so.
“In both aspects of my life – F1 life and also at home – I feel like I’m in the best position that I’ve been. I know that I’m going to make mistakes, and I’m going to let myself down, but I’m excited and confident that I can go out and do a good job every weekend.”
READ MORE – McLaren admits improving Lando Norris’ compatibility with MCL39 will take ‘some work’
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