McLaren’s Lando Norris has admitted that he is “nowhere near” the capability he has, following a P3 finish in the 2025 F1 Bahrain GP.
After qualifying P6 yesterday, in what Norris deemed a “terrible” performance, he worked his way up the grid in today’s race to take his fourth consecutive podium of the season. However, he has stated that a severe lack of confidence is stopping him from achieving his full potential.
Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, recorded a dominant performance in Bahrain, leading the race from lights-out to chequered flag.
Norris: McLaren should have achieved a 1-2 in F1 Bahrain GP
When asked about his feelings on the car, Norris was rather blunt in saying that the car is good, because Piastri won in it. However, he made clear that his result today was not what he feels he should have achieved:
“The car’s good. Won the race, so yeah, as happy as I can be,” he said.
“I qualified sixth yesterday, which is pretty terrible, so how can I possibly be happy? That just doesn’t make sense.”
He continued: “Of course, I’m a little bit happier today that I managed to get back to P3, that I had a good start, all those things. But I think P2 was the best we could have achieved today. It’s what we should have achieved. But we didn’t, and I didn’t because of some mistakes.
“So mixed feelings. I think the pace was good. The car’s obviously mega, as Oscar showed. But just too many mistakes there.”
And despite Norris’s respectable podium finish, he expressed that he’ll be glad to see the back of this weekend in Bahrain. In response to being asked what positives he’ll take away from the race, he said:
“That it’s finished, probably.”
Norris: False start should not have happened
During the race, Norris received a five-second time penalty for a false start. Footage showed that his two front wheels were not contained inside his starting box at the moment of lights-out.
“At the beginning I was too far back, so I tried to creep forward, and [I] crept forward and did the opposite. First time I’ve ever done this in my life. Shouldn’t happen, but it did,” he said.
Otherwise, Norris recorded a strong start at the F1 Bahrain GP, threading himself in between Kimi Antonelli and Pierre Gasly, and overtaking Leclerc to move into P3.
However, Norris butchered moves on Charles Leclerc before eventually making the pass into turn 4 in the closing laps in the F1 Bahrain GP.
“When I was in P3, I was pretty happy,” he said.
“[It was] going to be tough to get past George [Russell]. [Mercedes] have not been that bad this weekend; one and a half tenths off pole position so they’re clearly not struggling.”
His unexpectedly positive start quickly turned sour, though, after the FIA caught onto his incorrect starting position. After that, Norris found his performance to have taken a nosedive, fraught with too many mistakes:
“I didn’t expect to get past that easily, I didn’t at all. I was happy, a good opening lap. Aggressive and attacking, which I needed to be. But then I had the penalty and everything got a lot worse.
“I had the penalty, the tyres and kind of paid the price for that again. Every time I did one thing good, I did two [things] bad, in a way. I just kept stopping myself from making as much progress as I should have done today.”
Something is “not clicking” with MCL39
Norris blamed these mistakes on an inability to get comfortable in the car. And despite strong performances, this is something that has plagued him since the start of the season:
“I’m confident that I have everything I need and I’ve got what it takes. I’ve no doubt about that, that I’m good enough and all of those things,” he said.
“But something’s just not clicking with me and the car. I’m not able to do any of the laps that I was doing last season. There, I knew every single corner. [I’ve felt the] opposite so far. Even in Australia. I won the race, but never felt comfortable, never felt confident.”
He continued: “The car was just mega, and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute. I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say.
“I’ve spent a lot of time, even last night – I left late last night to look into everything and understand what I’m struggling with, what’s not clicking, trying to figure out what’s changed from last year to this year.
“Is it me? Is it some of the car? It’s complicated but I’m not doubting myself, even though sometimes it may seem like that. It’s just something’s not gelling, something’s not clicking.”
That being said, Norris denied that he lacks any confidence in himself, but he stressed the importance of a functional relationship between the driver and the car:
“I know I’ve got what it takes, but [I’m] just not confident and when you’re not confident in the car to know what the limit is, to know what to do in the slow speed, high speed, any corner, I’m never going to be as quick as I need to be.
“Especially when you’ve got guys who are, you know, you’re fighting the best in the world. As soon as you’re not gelling, then you’re going to be an issue, so that’s what I have at the minute.”
Lando Norris: Being hard on myself is what makes me a better driver
After having expressed some negative feelings towards his performance in qualifying during post-session interviews, there were concerns that Norris may be holding himself to some severe standards.
However, he argued that that these thoughts are an expression of his desire to win, rather than a form of self-deprecation:
“I think it would be even harder for me to not show any of these things. When I do my interviews and whatever, a lot of it is just getting my frustration out.
“It’s because I’m not achieving what I want to achieve. This is because of my desire to do well and my ambition to win. When I know what I can do and what I’m capable of, and I’m not even close to reaching that like yesterday, I’m very disappointed in myself.
“And that’s just who I am. I’m so hungry to win and I work so hard to win.”
In what might be considered as a harsh way of working for some, Norris said that this method of thinking paved his path to F1:
“It’s the way I do things, it’s the way I work. It’s what has made me as good as I am and probably maybe at times has limited me from becoming a better driver. But like I said, I know what I can do and I’m happy.
“I think what I can do and what I can achieve is good enough and easily up there with the best so I just need to get back in that rhythm. Maybe sometimes I’m too hard on myself like yesterday, but I came back today after a nice sleep, re-energised, a new day and good to go again and put up a good fight, which I felt I kind of did.
“So that’s one day. Today was a new day and I have a few days off now to, again, recover and go again.”
