Speaking on Thursday ahead of Formula 1’s return following the summer break, McLaren’s Lando Norris remains critical of his overall performance during the opening half of the 2024 season, while team principal Andrea Stella says the young Briton is performing at championship level.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s return to the track for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, McLaren’s Lando Norris echoed his comments from earlier in the season, highlighting his shortcomings in earlier races.
Norris, who currently sits second in the drivers’ standings and just 78 points short of reigning champion Max Verstappen, explained he had taken the time over the summer break to assess his performances and learn from his mistakes.
“It’s still the same really.” Norris replied when asked if his sentiments had changed. “ Just things I’ve looked back on and learned from. But I’m fighting for a championship, so I’m not going to be happy if I’m not performing at the level that I need to do to beat Max and to beat Red Bull and to beat the other drivers that I need to be beating.
“I’m still very happy with how the season’s gone. But I just – one too many mistakes and a few too many points given away which is not the level I need to be at if I want to fight for a championship at the end of the day and to fight against a driver like Max. So plenty of things I’ve looked into and I’ve tried to work on and I’ve come back stronger.”
When questioned on what areas of his performance he aims to change, Norris cited his race starts as a key point. Having failed to match his rivals off the line more often than not, the McLaren driver feels he has allowed opportunities to slip away at the beginning of races.
“It’s a mixture of things but starts and lap one. That’s where most of my opportunities have gone away from me. From after lap one onwards generally the races have been very strong and the pace has still been very good. Race pace has been good, strategy I’ve been very happy with.
“So there’s still so many strong things but always overshadowed by having a bad start or a bad turn one or being a bit safe at times, trying to stay out of trouble, things like that.”
Contrary to Norris’ statements, team principal Andrea Stella believes Norris is already consistently performing at the level required to challenge for and win world championships. He noted that his driver has a tendency to be overly critical of his mistakes.
“The first thing I make of his comment is [it] kind of confirms his style. He’s quite self-critical. He tends to look occasionally at the half-empty part of the glass,” Stella said of Norris comments. “In reality, I think he definitely has the potential of a world champion, and he’s performing at world championship level. If we compare against perfection, then definitely we have opportunities [to improve].
“But I like that we compare ourselves against perfection, because this is what we need to do. And I’ve been very encouraged that every little opportunity has been actually analysed in great level of detail. We do see some of the opportunities coming in the first lap, for instance, and trying to find the balance between being aggressive or simply like staying away from situations or accidents.”
Stella went on to express his confidence in Norris, and explained the team are up to the challenge ahead in closing down Max Verstappen in the championship.
“He can win world championships. That’s a statement in capital letters,” Stella said of Norris. “In terms of this year’s championships, certainly we don’t give up numerically from a drivers’ championship point of view, it looks like there’s a big gap to fill and we are chasing Max Verstappen. Definitely it’s not going to make it easy for us, but we are excited to be in this position.”
Norris was equally enthusiastic about the remainder of the season, far from ruling out the possibility of clinching his first world title. He did however acknowledge Max Verstappen as a fierce competitor to be battling for the title.
“For the team of course, that’s a much more obvious one.” Norris replied when asked about his and McLaren’s championship hopes. “As a driver of course it’s still in reach but it’s a lot of points and it’s against Max [Verstappen].
“I want to be optimistic and say there’s still chances. I know it’s a lot and it’s going to be a very difficult challenge but with how we’re performing, with how I know I can go out and perform, when things click and things go well then I still want to believe it’s possible.”
