Lando Norris believes he is on track to becoming "a complete driver"

McLaren

Norris believes he is on track to becoming "a complete driver"

Norris enters his third season with McLaren after aiding in the push for third in 2020

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Saturday 9 January 2021 16:00

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McLaren driver Lando Norris believes his development throughout his second season in Formula 1 was down to not focusing on his driving as much as in his rookie year.

Norris opened last season with his first podium in F1, going on to add consistent points to impressive qualifying performances as he and former team-mate Carlos Sainz steered McLaren to third in the constructors' championship.

On the back of his rookie season in 2019, Norris explained how he had been able to turn his attention to integration within the technical and engineering side of the team to improve overall.

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"It is weird thinking that I'm going into my third season," said Norris, when asked by GPFans Global for his reflections on his second. "It doesn't feel like I have done a proper second season.

"I guess the biggest thing was my progress from 2019 coming into 2020. I think that is where I have made the biggest steps and a lot of the improvements were made in the pre-season test going into Austria.

"But even throughout 2020, I think because there was in some ways, not less focus but I didn't have to focus all of my attention on the driving as much as 2019, I was able to open up and explore more things with my engineers, how I worked with them, the debriefs and set-ups and everything like that.

"I guess the thing is, in Formula 1, it is important not only to improve your driving but also other aspects of it too, which add up to results and consistency and stuff like that.

"I think that is something I have improved a lot this season, my reliability with my comments and everything like that."

Another factor that Norris pointed at was an initial shyness when debriefing with the team in his maiden season.

The British driver now believes, however, he is more willing to lead the team and give direction, especially as Sainz has left for Ferrari.

"Even in 2019, there were still points where I knew sometimes what I wanted from the team and what I wanted in the car, but I was still a little bit too passive with accepting things and just kind of going with the flow, let's say," he explained.

"Carlos led some of the debriefs a bit more with his experience and [because of] my lack of experience and things like that.

"Whereas last year, I came in with much more confidence in my driving, in my abilities on track, which I think I managed to prove a lot more often.

"But also, how I led the team a lot more in my comments, my debriefs and more things away from the track and more things off the track, in the meetings and stuff like that and not just actually driving the car.

"I am very happy with the progress I made. There are obviously things I need to improve still but on the whole, I am very happy with how I have improved as a complete driver."