Lando Norris says he hated calling out his "lack of experience" in the early stages of his F1 career but the McLaren driver realizes the benefits of maturing and gaining knowledge.
Norris enjoyed a productive rookie season with McLaren in 2019 and a good second campaign during which he scored his first F1 podium.
But last year, the 22-year-old carried his performance to the next level, snatching his first pole position in Russia where he also almost won.
As a young driver who demands a lot from himself, Norris was always reluctant in his early days in F1 to invoke a "lack of experience" to perhaps justify what he perceived as a disappointing result.
But with each passing season, he has become aware of the impact and the value of experience on his natural progression.
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"I always hate to leave an excuse as ‘lack of experience’," he explained, quoted by Motorsport.com.
"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."
While he viewed positively his second season among motorsport's elite, Norris believes his performances were perhaps not fully appreciated as they were measured against those of his then teammate Carlos Sainz.
"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, so fair play to him," he said.
"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.
"That was through a combination of understanding everything from the past few years, having a bit of a fresh start, different teammate 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."
Norris continued to mature in 2021, a season during which he outperformed his new McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo. But last year's campaign wasn't void of mistakes.
A botched start in Brazil where he clashed with Sainz likely deprived him of a strong result. But overall, he reckons he turned some of his weaknesses into strengths last year.
"I’m very happy at least with the progress I made from last season working on those weak areas," he said. "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 maximised what we did very well.
"We maximised 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 have put me out. I’ve not had any proper big crashes which have cost me points I think."
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