Norris has been on pole in three of the last four races
McLaren
Take the outlier Monza demands out of the equation and McLaren has been the form car since Budapest. Monza’s elongated layout unduly punished the McLaren’s short gearing, particularly relative to Mercedes. But at the last three ‘conventional’ tracks – Budapest, Zandvoort and Madring – the MCL40 has been the class of the field, with Lando Norris on pole for all three and only being denied a third victory last Sunday by the VSC timing.
Norris’ confidence has soared in parallel with the improvements made to the car from its big update in Budapest, followed by a significant further one at Zandvoort. The surge in form has probably come too late for a realistic title challenge but Norris is driving with an incredible elan at the moment, and he’s not shy about letting the world know about the level he is reaching.
Budapest: “The car was unbelievable today. Sometimes horrible to drive but fast. When the car is giving me what I need no-one is going to beat me.”
Zandvoort: “Like I said at the last race, if the car gives me what I want, at the level I’m driving at now, I win races.”
Madring: “We were the fastest today, but we’re just not where we need to be in qualifying. We take a step on Sundays because the way I drive I can do a better job with the tyres than the others.”
Norris is extracting everything from the latest McLaren upgrades
McLaren
This may sound immodest, but it’s the other side of the coin of his excoriating self-criticism when he feels he’s not done well enough. He has a unique way of being incredibly honest about his own performance – for good or bad – and it’s interesting to ponder where that may be coming from.
After setting pole in Hungary, he said he believed he was driving to a higher level than in his championship-winning season of last year. The incredible peaks have been there right from the start (though largely under-appreciated by the watching world). This is a driver whose raw ability Max Verstappen holds in extremely high regard. When asked a few years ago if he was surprised at Norris over-delivering in a particular session, he replied. “No, I’m never surprised at anything Lando does. I know what he’s capable of.” But his experience and the work he’s done on himself is allowing that driver to be more consistently apparent.
It’s a strange mix of humility and arrogance. It’s as if external perceptions matter to him and can hurt him. So when his performances do not match up to his ambitions, it stings even more to have that pointed out. But now that he is reaching such a high level every time out, he would like all those critics to know, to see, and he refuses to let it pass by unnoticed or be diminished in any way.
Fast enough to build an unassailable lead, Lando Norris was too quick to catch the VSC pit window. And so his flawless F1 Madring weekend ended cruelly, as even the winner acknowledged, Mark Hughes says
He’s an enigmatic guy and a complex performer, but the level he’s operating at right now stands in comparison to anyone. But as is the case with any driver, the car needs to allow him to access the outer reaches of that level and as the car has got faster, so his advantage over team-mate Oscar Piastri has increased. Both drivers have qualified better since Budapest than before, but while Piastri has found an extra 0.267% from the improved car (comparing pre to post-Budapest qualifying), Norris has stepped up by 0.502%. Relative to average pole times of the season to date, that comes out as Norris finding almost 0.2sec more from the updates than Piastri.
The way Norris can overlap braking and cornering (even braking and throttle in places) seems to really load up the front in a much more progressive way than Piastri and, in doing so, doesn’t generate the same snaps from the rear and thereby looks after the tyres better. As the McLaren’s downforce spread has widened with its updates, so that distinction in technique seems to have become even more of a differentiator. This is the car giving Norris what he needs – and we are currently witnessing the resultant dynamite pretty much every race.
I suspect we’re going to see more moments of magic from him in the remaining races. It’s a good time to appreciate what we are watching.
