Norris admits to overdriving: 'I am where I deserve to be'

Lando Norris has always been his own harshest critic since making his Formula 1 debut in the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, and that remains the case this weekend where he was clearly unhappy with his performance in today's qualifying session.

This year's new McLaren, dubbed the MCL60 to mark the 60th anniversary of the squad's founding by Bruce McLaren, is emphatically not living up to the team's pre-season expectations - and Norris is determined to take his share of the blame.

Neither he nor new team mate Oscar Piastri have finished in the points in the first two races of 2023. Norris himself has finished both races down in P17.

Last time out in Saudi Arabia, Norris made a mistake in the first round of qualifying and hit the wall. It left him starting the race from the back row of the grid. This week he did make it into Q2, but will still start from 13th.

• Read also: Verstappen on pole in Australia ahead of Russell and Hamilton

“Today wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping. The cooler conditions just made us struggle a little bit more to be consistent and get the maximum out of the car," he said.

"But it’s still not a bad position to start and we can hopefully try to get into the points," he said, attempting to look on the bright side of things.

Along the way he suffered a serious of small mistakes, which he put down to overdriving the car in an attempt to wring more performance out of it that simply wasn't there to be had.

"I don't want to just settle for a P13 or P12, so it's just a little bit of overdriving potentially," he said. "It's tough, especially when you're kind of close-ish.

"[It's] a tricky car to drive, one that is easy to go over the limit on anyway," he admitted. "When you combine that with trying to overdrive a little bit too much, then I made the mistakes like I did today. I am where I deserve to be.

"I'm not quite finding the rhythm that I want and the knowledge of every corner where the limit is exactly," he continued. I’m not quite driving the way I want and to the level I should hold myself to.

Piastri had also been hoping for more from his first home Grand Prix, but still start from 16th place after missing the cut at the en dof the first round of qualifying.

“Obviously not quite what I wanted in Melbourne. The field is extremely tight and there’s not a lot in it," he said. "I was reasonably happy with my lap; unfortunately it just wasn’t quite quick enough by the smallest of margins.

"It is what it is and we’ve got tonight to look at everything to put us in the best position to make up some places tomorrow. Hopefully we will have a clean Grand Prix.”

New McLaren team principal Andrea Stella disagreed with Norris' critical self-assessment, and felt that the team was more to blame than either driver.

“We’re aware that making it through to Q3, with our current car performance, requires us to absolutely maximise every single corner," he said. "However the reality is that we don’t have enough underlying performance on the car.

"We have a lot of work ahead to improve that," he accepted. "That’s no different from what we have been saying since the start of the season, and we stay determined to deliver the upgrades required to improve.

"I don't think Lando is overdriving the car. I think the car is tricky to drive, especially in braking," he told the media in the paddock at Melbourne. "You always see it so much on the limit of front-locking or a bit of rear-locking.

"The drivers need to attack because the underlying performance is not enough to go through sessions if they don't take this kind of risk," he said. "So I don't think the drivers are overdriving, they're simply trying to extract as much performance as possible.

"We appreciate Lando and Oscar not only trying to do their best while on track, but also having this self-reflective, self-critical attitude," Stella added. "But we know that it's the team that needs to do a better job."

"The car needs to be pushed in braking to work somehow, and on tracks like this one - in cold conditions with the wind - it means that the margin to make a mistake is very, very small.

"But the car is too difficult to drive and doesn't have enough underlying performance," he insisted. "This is a responsibility that is entirely on the team."

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