This year’s Dutch Grand Prix has already been described as the “preliminary World Cup decision” because while Oscar Piastri clinched his seventh win of the season, McLaren team-mate Lando Norris retired with a technical defect. The Briton’s gap grew from nine to 34 points.
Was it exactly this possible “preliminary decision” that became a turning point for Norris because it reduced the pressure in the world championship fight? “To be honest, I would just say: no,” says the 26-year-old Brit looking back. “It didn’t allow me to relax.”
“When I see 34 points behind against a driver who has the same car, who shows incredible performance and who I know is extremely fast – that doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence,” Norris suggests that the pressure actually increased at this stage of the season.
“It wasn’t like: ‘Oh, now I have nothing to lose, now I can just get started,'” adds the McLaren driver. “I felt like I had tried everything I could before, and I continued to give it my all afterward.”
Pressure is rather greater after the Zandvoort loss
At least from this perspective, nothing has changed after the Zandvoort disaster. And yet it had an impact. “I had to increase my involvement outside of the track: with the people I worked with, I had to expand my team,” adds Norris.
“I had to work harder, both in the simulator and on the track. I had to change my approach, adapt my driving style,” he reports. “I just had to, like many people, really dig in and try to understand things faster and at a more advanced level than ever before.”
“That’s exactly what gave me the advantage I had afterwards,” reflects the new world champion. But the pressure has by no means lessened. “On the contrary. I thought: ‘Damn, I’m pretty far behind against a really fast driver. I have to improve.'”
“It wasn’t about being more relaxed, it was about getting better and being more myself,” emphasizes Norris, who even received support from “external experts in various fields” who helped him unlock more of his potential.
A bad start to the season makes Norris think
“And I think when you saw my series of great results, that was ultimately the reason why I won the championship in the end.” Nevertheless, the McLaren driver would not necessarily describe the race in Zandvoort as a turning point.
Although he had developed “particularly clearly” at this stage of the season, “it definitely started before,” reveals Norris. The “somewhat bad phase in races 2 to 6” in particular made the Brit think.
“During that period of time, I thought, ‘Okay, my current path isn’t working. I need to understand things differently.’ “I had to talk to more people, understand what I think and why I think it,” says the McLaren driver with unusual depth.
“These poor results and the lack of performance – not the speed, that was always there – but the inability to put things together even though I was capable of it, opened my eyes. I realized that it’s not enough to just try again the next weekend.”
“The initial difficulties became strengths”
Norris “needed to have a deeper mental understanding of what was going on” and that opened up new possibilities for him. “I would say the initial difficulties became strengths,” he adds. “If I hadn’t had these challenges at the beginning, I probably wouldn’t have gained the necessary insights so quickly.”
“So I’m almost grateful for the hard moments at the beginning because I was able to turn them into something positive in the end.” Although the Brit believes he was “almost under more pressure than ever before” and needed to catch up on points, he has been able to get into that good rhythm over the last three months.
The new world champion felt “most comfortable and safe,” he reports, especially in qualifying. “I was able to go straight from a casual conversation with my engineers or mechanics and get pole position a few minutes later.”
That’s why the unfortunate failure in Zandvoort played a part in changing the approach, but the actual reason for the sudden upswing lies earlier. “The initial difficulties really helped me reach my full potential later on,” says Norris.