McLaren respond to Lando Norris’ critical ‘not driving like a World Champion’ assessment

Lando Norris believes he hasn’t been at World Champion level so far this year.

Lando Norris’ self-critical comments about his level of driving have been addressed by McLaren boss Andrea Stella.

After making quite a few errors which have cost him points and positions in the first half of the F1 2024 championship, Lando Norris was quite self-critical in assessing himself as he spoke to the media on Thursday at Zandvoort.

Lando Norris: I have not been at the level I need to be

Additional reporting by Sam Cooper.

While Norris became an F1 Grand Prix winner for the first time by claiming victory in Miami earlier this season, the British driver has admitted he believes he’s made “one too many mistakes” and cost himself “a few too many points” in the battle with Max Verstappen.

Starting the second half of the season in second place in the driver’s championship, 78 points behind Verstappen, a prime example of the type of errors that have crept in was seen at the Belgian Grand Prix when Norris ran wide out of Turn 1 and touched off the gravel all by himself. Losing positions as a result, Norris was doomed to come home behind Verstappen at the chequered flag.

“In the first half of the season, I have not performed at the level of a world champion. Simple as that,” Norris told media, including PlanetF1.com, at Zandvoort.

“At times, I have. Many races, I have. But, little things have let me down along the way and those are things I can’t afford. In the last few races, I have not been at the level I need to be at.”

“I’m not going to be happy if I’m not performing at the level that I need to do to beat Max, Red Bull, and the drivers that I need to be beating.

“I’m still very happy with how the season’s gone, but just one too many mistakes and a few too many points given away, which is not the level I need to be at if I want to fight for a championship at the end of the day and to fight against a driver like Max.

“So [there are] plenty of things I’ve looked into and I’ve tried to work on, and get stronger.”

With most of Norris’ issues coming on the first lap of races, the McLaren driver said he’s focused on trying to improve this area.

“There’s not a single thing I need to change, but honestly the start and lap one are where most of my opportunities have gone away from me,” he said.

“From Lap 1 onwards, generally, the races have been very strong and the race pace has been good. Strategies I’ve been very happy with so there are so many strong things that are always overshadowed by having a bad start or a bad Turn 1 or being a bit safe at times trying to stay out of trouble.”

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Andrea Stella: Lando Norris self-criticism part of his style

Norris is known for being quite critical of himself on track, and McLaren boss Andrea Stella said his driver’s comments heading into the weekend at Zandvoort merely underline this facet of his personality.

“The first thing I make of his comment is it confirms his style. He’s quite self-critical,” he said. “He tends to look occasionally at the half-empty part of the glass.

“In reality, I think he definitely has the potential of a World Champion, and he’s performing at world championship level.

“If we compare against perfection, then definitely we have opportunities. But I like that we compare ourselves against perfection, because this is what we need to do, and I’ve been very encouraged that every little opportunity has been actually analysed in a great level of detail.

“Lando has always been very open and transparent, like he is with the public, definitely with the team, and we are together in trying to nail and polish all the possible situations in which we need to be better at delivering, according to the potential.

So definitely world championship material, like in everything – Lando, Oscar, the entire team, every single opportunity to improve needs to be attacked with determination to improve.

“I don’t think in terms of driving itself – for speed, consistency in the race, we are not far at all.

“I think, if anything this year, there have been more opportunities coming in some specific racing situations, like the start and the first lap.

“Sometimes we have lost some time in the race, just in this initial phase of the race, and then we kind of recover thanks to the pace that we had later on.

“So it’s quite specific, and we’ve definitely been working on trying to improve it.”

Andrea Stella: Lando Norris is World Championship material

Stella, who has previously worked with Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, and Fernando Alonso during a long and successful career, said he has no doubts that Norris possesses all the qualities a World Champion needs.

“Lando is definitely World Championship material,” he said.

“He performs already at levels that I’ve seen in the past in some of the great champions I have the luck to work with.

“We definitely have something to clean on the starts, which is not only the driver but is also team responsibility. I think he had a couple of situations in the races in which he might have taken some of the responsibility, but I think it was the team’s responsibility, like Canada – a case in which we didn’t pit Lando for the late Safety Car before the pit entry, or if I think about Silverstone and the final stint, that’s the team responsibility.

“If the team had operated at higher standards, then Lando would have more points in the championship. And definitely, as a team, we appreciate that he puts some of the pressure on himself, or he raises his hand and says like it was on me, but I think I have enough experience to say, ‘Mate, don’t worry. That’s on the team’.

“Definitely, we as a team have quite a lot of work to do as well.”

Asked whether Norris’ potential is enough to win this year’s title, Stella was pragmatic in his answer.

“He can win World Championships. That’s a statement. That’s capital letters,” he said.

“In terms of this year’s championships, certainly we don’t give up – numerically, from a Drivers Championship point of view, it looks like there’s a big gap to fill, and we are chasing Max Verstappen so definitely he is not going to make it easy for us, but we are excited to be in this position.

“Definitely, Lando is not in this position because somebody helped him. Lando is in this position because he performs very strongly, and that’s something that we should acknowledge and realise in terms of his achievements, not only in terms of the opportunities in a season in which he could have done better, because this is normal, and this is normal for every world champion in every season.”

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