“Carlos did not make me look as good,” Lando Norris reveals how third year factor helped him shine in 2021 F1 season
Follow Us
Lando Norris
Lando Norris the McLaren Formula1 driver has recently during an interview shared his viewpoint on his stellar performances during the 2021 Formula1 season.
It has been stated in autosport that Lando Norris believes that the experience factor should not be underestimated when it comes to delivering in the pinnacle of motorsports that is “Formula1.”
Lando Norris joined Formula1 in 2019 and gave two solid seasons for the McLaren Formula1 team but was, however, not able to stand out completely during his first two seasons. This all changed during the 2021 Formula1 season as he really stood out on occasions and caught the keen eyes of the pundits and the fans all over the world.
Lando Norris on his 2021 Formula1 season
During the 2021 Formula1 season Lando Norris was able to secure the first pole position of his Formula1 career and also came very close to winning his maiden Grand Prix in Russia.
Lando believes in Formula1 experience is key and with a few years under his belt, it has just been a natural progression for him year on year. While talking about it Lando said, “I always hate to leave an excuse as ‘lack of experience.”
“Like, saying ‘oh, I’m just not as experienced’ is such an easy thing to use, and I’d hate to say lack of experience.”
“I hate having to say that sometimes, and I didn’t want to believe that having that break in the winter and coming back knowing everything a bit more subconsciously is going to make much difference.”
“But also, because I’ve never done more than one season in any category since starting in cadets, it was hard for me to know the differences through the years.”
Lando believes that in his early seasons in Formula1 it was hard for him to judge his qualities as he was up against the well-established Carlos Sainz.
“I think I got shadowed a bit by him because he was doing an exceptional job and I think I’ve taken that next step, which would have been the same or maybe a bit better than him.”
“I think my second year was good, but Carlos I believe is one of the best drivers in F1 and he didn’t make me look as good, because he’s an extremely good driver and he did a very good job,” said Norris about their two seasons together. So fair play to him.”
“That was through a combination of understanding everything from the past few years, having a bit of a fresh start, different team-mate and so on, and a slightly better car underneath me that I’m more confident with.”
“Plus that winter off, coming back refreshed, and having a lot more of that experience ingrained in me. So I really saw that difference more than I did maybe for year one to year two.”
“I’m very happy at least with the progress I made from last season working on those weak areas.”
“I think I turned some of those into strengths. Some of them still need some work but overall, we’ve done a much better job.“
“The other things I did well was especially the first half being very strong. I think we came out at the start of the season extremely strong and I think we maximized what we did very well.”
“We maximized every opportunity we had to get onto the podiums to make the most of other people’s penalties and stuff.”
“There’s definitely been a few places where I’ve made mistakes for sure, like Brazil, which was probably one of my biggest mistakes of the season.”
“It’s such a small thing but it cost us a good amount of points and a possible race with Ferrari and to be ahead of them in that race.”
“Maybe two or three other races where I just haven’t been on it, maybe just one or two positions down, but I don’t think any of which has put me out. I’ve not had any proper big crashes which have cost me points I think.”
Stay Updated!
Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)