Less social media, renewed focus: behind Lando Norris's F1 title push

Lando Norris says his request to scale back social media obligations this year is part of a wider push to take greater control of his Formula 1 weekends and maximise every performance detail, as the McLaren driver outlined the work that has gone into taking control of the championship.

Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri have been notably less visible in the team’s light-hearted video content in recent months, prompting questions about whether the intensifying intra-team battle has changed their relationship.

Norris was clear that nothing has shifted between them, and that the reduced output is down to the drivers themselves.

“I think the reason you see less videos is because we both asked to do less videos,” said Norris in Las Vegas. “We’re racing drivers. We want to come and drive, not make videos for social media. That’s our request as drivers.”

Norris stressed that away from the cameras, the dynamic between he and Piastri remains “better than ever”, underpinned by what he described as a strong mutual respect and a clear separation between their working roles in the McLaren operation and their personal lives.

“We understand the position that we’re in. We work for McLaren, we want the best for the team… but when we step out of the car, we can still have a joke, we still have laughs in our debriefs.

“I think we’re still very different people. Like, he’s very calm, down to earth, very relaxed – always looks just cool. And that’s something I admire quite a bit – how plain sailing he is with a lot of things. It’s a good attribute to have. Always hard to read what mood he’s in, but… and I think probably for me, you see more visually the moods I’m in.

“But otherwise, it’s not like we go play golf together and do things like I have done with Carlos [Sainz]. Daniel [Ricciardo] – I didn’t play golf with, but, you know, we’re still different people.

“But in terms of relationship – we get along well, we still work together well, and I think it’s still better than it’s ever been.”

The decision to cut back on video shoots comes at the same time Norris has placed unprecedented emphasis on fine-tuning his execution throughout a race weekend.

Norris has moved into a commanding championship lead after victories in Mexico and Brazil, the Briton now holding a 24-point advantage over team-mate Piastri and 49 over Max Verstappen.

“I feel like I’ve very much been on top of a lot of things the last few weekends, but it’s a very difficult level to perform at all the time,” he said. “I have incredible drivers that I’m up against. So, you know, my expectation for myself is to try and perform at the same level, but that’s not always a guarantee.”

Norris dismissed the idea of a single breakthrough moment having led to his strong run of results, but instead pointed to the cumulative effect of the effort behind the scenes.

“It’s just a constant amount of work that I do with my team to always keep finding little things,” he explained. “It’s not like you figure it out and then everything’s easy. I still, every weekend, just have to adapt a lot to how the car wants to be driven.”