How Lando Norris has aided McLaren's recovery

McLaren

How Norris has aided McLaren's recovery

McLaren has bounced back from a dreadful start of the season

Ian Parkes & Sam Hall

Wednesday 17 August 2022 17:01

Andreas Seidl has revealed how Lando Norris assisted him to turn around McLaren's fortunes after a torrid start to the season.

The Woking-based team endured a dreadful first race of the year after suffering from unexpected brake issues in the Bahrain heat - problems that carried over from pre-season testing at the same venue.

Despite his disappointment, Norris rallied the team and motivated personnel to rediscover the pace that had taken McLaren to consecutive top-four finishes in the constructors' standings.

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“The thing which was quite impressive for me to see was how he was dealing with a difficult start of the season this year, especially for him as an ambitious race driver after the good season we had last year," team principal Seidl told GPFans.

“For sure, he was disappointed as well but he helped me quite a lot as well in order to make sure that everyone stays on track, helped me keep pushing the team forward, motivating the team in order to get back on track as quickly as possible.

“It would have been so easy also for him to just be frustrated and start to become negative and so on, but it was the complete opposite.

“He went back to the factory in Woking, trying to motivate everyone which is great to see for me as a team boss. It's also one of the key characteristics that top pilots must have because that helps them to extract the maximum out of the team they're working with."

Norris locked in future a reason for McLaren positivity

Norris is locked into his McLaren contract with no get-out clauses until the end of 2025.

Explaining what has impressed him with Norris on the track, Seidl added: "Even with not giving him the car to score similar results like he could do for example last year, I clearly see again when I talk with engineers that made another step.

“How he approaches race weekends, the way he demands things he needs in order to get the maximum out of the car or out of the team on the weekend, the way how he goes into qualifying, how he prepares himself for a race, he's impressive.

“At the same time, we know he's only going into his fourth year in Formula 1 or he is in his fourth year so be it which also means there's still a lot more to come from his side, which makes me even more positive looking forward and knowing that he's with us for many, many more years."