Norris preparing for his hardest but best F1 season

McLaren’s Lando Norris expects 2021 to be the hardest but best season of his fledgling Formula One career.

McLaren driver Lando Norris. - REUTERS

McLaren’s Lando Norris expects 2021 to be the hardest but best season of his fledgling Formula One career, with a new team-mate in Australian Daniel Ricciardo, a switch to Mercedes engines and absolutely no excuses.

The 21-year-old will be starting his third year in Grand Prix racing having already established himself as the youngest Briton to stand on the podium after finishing third in Austria last year. He ended that season ninth overall after finishing 11th in his debut year.

“In many ways it’s going to be the hardest season altogether but I am hoping the best season too,” Norris told reporters ahead of the online launch of McLaren’s new MCL35M car at the factory alongside Ricciardo.

“The hardest for different reasons and one of them being that I’m the guy with the experience at McLaren so I need to take on a bit more of that role and show how it is done and lead the team in the right direction.

 

“It’s a bigger opportunity for me to take up that lead and something I will work very hard on.”

Ricciardo has replaced Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who has moved to Ferrari, at the Woking-based team and Norris suggested the challenge for him would not be very different with the driver change.

“I don’t think it makes it any harder. Carlos is an extremely good driver and there are things Carlos is going to be better at than Daniel and vice-versa,” he said.

Ready for the 2021 season! @McLarenF1@landonorris@danielricciardo#McLarenF1#SendItpic.twitter.com/L8Nwt3suvF

— Zak Brown (@ZBrownCEO) February 15, 2021

 

“I don’t believe Daniel is a big step above anything that Carlos has achieved so it doesn’t really change much for me. There’s probably more pressure on him because he has been in Formula One for longer,” added Norris, who said he had fully recovered from contracting COVID-19 in January while in Dubai.

Norris said there would be no excuses in his third year and he would have to perform.

He said he had stepped up in training, mentioning that he had also modified habits such as “trying not to have a pizza as often.”

“I am trying to think outside the box and dedicating more time and thinking more than normal to work out what is good for me and push myself to the next level,” he said.