Many pilots are released from great weight on their shoulders when they achieve their first victory, with Lando Norris it happened just the opposite. The fortune blow with a security car opened the talented young woman of McLaren in the Miami GP of 2024, but the last 12 months have not been those of Norris’ confirmation as an aspiring titles in F1. He succumbed to the fury of the best Verstappen and his pressing self -criticism has given him a reputation as a ‘tormented’ and “weak” pilot, Now that he should be enjoying an MCL39. Piastri eats ground. And this weekend, back at the Hard Rock Stadium autodrome, the Australian first defends the leadership in the championship with ten points of advantage over his teammate, and with three wins in the last four races.
25 -year -old English was runner -up last year, but lost almost all duels against Max, He did not fit the excess of aggressiveness of the Dutchman and accused too many pilot errors in first laps. He would win three more races (Holland, Singapore and Abu Dhabi)the three from the pole. And also the first of 2025 in Australia. But since he first went up to the McLaren of this season, he insisted that he was not comfortable at the wheel, his piloting style was adjusted worse than that of Piastri and suffered on a return. In China, he gave positions with a bad first curve, in Japan he beat Verstappen with a lower Red Bull, in Bahréin he classified badly and was penalized for leaving the box of the grill (although he traced up to the podium) and in Saudi Arabia crashed at the beginning of the Q3 and could not be more than fourth with a real bolid.
Norris is not the first pilot who points high in the junior categories (he won the European F3 in 2017, although in F2 Russell beat him in 2018), he stands out in the middle zone of the F1 and gets stuck when fighting for triumphs. The English, in its seventh year (always in McLaren, debuted in 2019 as Sainz’s partner), admits that his victory in Miami a year ago was a point of emotional inflection: “I always thought I could win a Formula 1 career, but I never went to one thinking that I could win. So it was a relief to see that I could win a race and beat Max. And that makes you relax you, because if I did a few months ago I can do it again. You forget that inner voice that tells you: ‘Don’t be wrong now!”
“Sometimes I have excuses, but I’m not proud to use them, and 95% of the time I think I could have done a better job. Although the car is not fast enough. I have always been very hard with myself because I am not with the rest. My team, the mechanics, the car, the ‘set-up’. There are pros and cons with that mentality, but sometimes you can be too negative with yourself, ”says Lando in an interview with the official F1 website.
“It may be putting under too much pressure, Not for anything, and it is not for (fighting for) the championship or anything like that. I press myself because I want to do well, I want pole, win, be perfect. And I have to accept that I will not be perfect and I make mistakes for wanting to do everything right, I need to relax and trust my speed. Because in all races I think it has been the best. I just need to give me more opportunities on Saturday, ”closes English. That ignores a small detail: the other 18 grid pilots would change without thinking to be in their situation. With a champion car that aspires to win every Sunday.
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