After two strong first seasons in Formula 1 in which Norris had at times doubted himself, the Briton had a stellar 2021 campaign in which he took his first pole position and came close to victory at the Russian Grand Prix.
Last year’s world championships overshadowed his renowned team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, in what was a display of his growing maturity and speed, and left his McLaren bosses in no doubt that his first win was only a matter of time.
But while the step he took in 2021 was impressive, Lando Norris believes it’s just the natural progression every driver enjoys over multiple seasons.
“I always hate to use ‘lack of experience’ as an excuse,” he explained. “Saying ‘oh, I’m not that experienced’ is a very easy excuse to use, and I’d hate to say it’s all due to a lack of experience.”
“I hate to have to say that sometimes, and I didn’t want to believe that resting between seasons in the winter and coming back knowing everything a little bit more would make a lot of difference.”
“But also, as I have never done more than one season in any category since I started racing, it was difficult for me to know the differences from year to year.”
Norris also believes that his qualities in F1 were more difficult to judge when facing a Carlos Sainz, more established during his first two years.
“I think my second year was good, but Carlos is one of the best drivers in F1 and he didn’t make me look that good, because he’s an extremely good driver and he did a very good job,” Norris said of their two seasons together.
“I think he has overshadowed me a bit, because I was doing an exceptional job, but I have taken the next step, which would have allowed me to be the same or maybe a little better than him.”
“That’s down to a combination of understanding from the last couple of years, a fresh start, a different teammate etc, and a slightly better car that I’m more confident with.
“Also, the winter off helped me come back refreshed and much more experienced. So I really saw that difference a lot more than between the first and second year.”
Although Norris’ 2021 season started strongly, he reckons there were some issues as the year progressed, including the start incident with Carlos Sainz in Brazil that cost him a chance of a big finish.
“I’m very happy with the progress I made last season working on those weak spots,” he said. “I think I’ve turned some of them into strengths and some I still have to work on, but overall, we’ve done a much better job.
“The other thing that I did well was, above all, being strong in the first part of the season. We started very strong at the beginning of the season and I think we maximized what we did very well.”
“We made the most of every opportunity we had to get on the podium to take advantage of the other people’s penalties.”
“There were some places where I made mistakes, like in Brazil, which was probably one of my biggest mistakes of the season.
“It was such a small thing that it cost us a good number of points and a possible fight with Ferrari and being ahead of them in that race.
“Maybe there were two or three other races where I wasn’t good, maybe one or two positions lower than I should have been, but I don’t think any of them left me out. I didn’t have any proper crash that cost me points, or that is what I think”.
