Lando Norris says that too many of his recent race weekends have ended with a feeling of “what could have been” and that he needs “to tidy things up so things can start to roll".
Norris’ race in Mexico last weekend saw the McLaren driver charge from P17 on the grid to P5 in the 71-lap two-part race that was split a red flag.
All things considered, it was a remarkable result achieved by the Briton, whose decisive overtakes entertained the fans and impressed McLaren team boss Andrea Stella who described Norris’ display as one of the greatest drives he had “ever been part of”.
And yet Norris himself, while admitting that it had been as “perfect a day as I could have asked for”, felt that he had once again – like in Qatar – let himself and his team down because of a botched qualifying session on Saturday.
“People complain why I’m so disappointed at times, but it’s because of days like today,” he said.
“Of course I’m going to be disappointed. There’s a chance to finish on the podium, get another trophy and score more points. Why would I ever be happy if I had a day like yesterday?”
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Despite putting together a string of four consecutive podium finishes ahead of his trip to Mexico, Norris insists that his recent weekends have been impaired by too many costly errors and that he needs to clean things up.
“I moved on very quickly, I moved on better than I did in Qatar,” Norris explained. .
“We put a lot of focus on today and I think that was evident and paid off. I’m never going to be happy after a day like yesterday because I know what we are capable of doing and when you have a day like today, you think of the what could have been.
“There’s too many what could have been at the minute. I need to tidy some things up and then things can start to roll.”
After Qatar, Stella commended Norris for his candid self-assessments, but reckoned that the Briton would eventually learn to cut himself the slack that he deserves.
Norris says he’s learning, and deal with his discontent better than he did in Qatar, but also because the stakes were lower at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
“It would be the same for anyone. If anyone was in my position, maybe some people are a bit better than others,” he reasoned.
“You’re never going to be happy when you’ve messed up. You’ve let the team down, you know, there’s 700-800 people relying on me to do a good job so, when you don’t, how can I put a smile on my face, right?
“I think I dealt with it a lot better than I did last time, mainly because it wasn’t for a pole or a win. But at the same time, I moved on, got my head down onto today and it paid off so I’m happy with that.”
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