Why McLaren’s "joker" doesn’t need to change much

Q: You said you were going to be a bit less jokey as we go into 2020. How is your personality going to change and how is that going to affect your racing going into the new season?

Lando Norris: It won't affect my personality at all. I'll still be who I am. I'll still have fun, make jokes and do what I do. But there's times when things can get portrayed quite differently from what I know.

A lot of people see me make jokes and whatever and therefore they turn and put a lot of blame for mistakes on me having fun, and seeing me look like I'm not focused compared with other drivers. I don't want me being portrayed in that way basically, but I'm not gonna change a lot. It's just small things here and there.

Q: How much of a problem have you had with internet trolls on social media? One assumes 
it's par for the course for any athlete of stature, but how do you deal with that?

LN: It depends. I would say 90% of the time it doesn't affect me at all and I find it just quite
 a good laugh to see what people can come up with. But there's times when you see things 
that kind of play on your mind a bit. I wouldn't say it's affected me in a good or bad way.

It's quite different being in the paddock from what people see on TV and on social media, so it's just trying to get the balance right. Most of the time it's a good laugh.

Q: What's it been like for you transitioning from a driver whose race weekend job is to take a spec chassis and make the most out of it, to a driver who obviously has to make the most out of the car during a race weekend, but also has a very profound voice in the ongoing development of that car?

LN: It is a very big change. In F2 and F3, you're very limited in what you can change - roll bars and wing levels and so on. When you get to F1 it's a very different story. Every weekend there's normally a new iteration of some part or another which will affect certain things, so you always needs to keep in mind how things are going to develop into the future.

"I get noticed a little bit more, but I'm not Lewis Hamilton and I don't get stopped wherever I go. I'm at the point where I still think it's quite cool!" Lando Norris

A lot of the stuff I say leads everyone in a direction, so you have to be quite careful, look at the bigger picture and how the whole package will improve rather than one specific thing.

At the beginning, I was shy to say anything too much, because I didn't want to lead anyone in the wrong direction. But as I went through the season, especially towards the end, I was more confident. Also, the time and effort you have to put into self-improvement is one of the biggest changes.

Q: How important is it to close the points gap to [team-mate] Carlos [Sainz] this year?

LN: Not that much to be honest. We both had bad races last year and missed opportunities. But after reviewing everything, there was a lot more points on my side which were lost down to reliability and problems and strategy mistakes than on Carlos's side. That's not because anything is biased, it's just how it goes sometimes.

And I'm not saying that all the points gap to Carlos was because of that - some of it was because of me not doing good enough and being wise enough in strategic calls and so on. But it's not something I'm worried about. Once you take into account how everything could and should have gone, it looks worse than it was.

Q: We know you like to lead quite a low-key life away from the track. Have you had to change 
the way you go about things since moving up to Formula 1 from Formula 2?

LN: A little bit, but not really. You get the odd face every now and then that's staring at you at dinner. You're just trying to eat and you notice somebody watching you - it's a bit weird. But I don't mind it. Of course, I get noticed a little bit more, [but] I'm not Lewis Hamilton and I don't get stopped wherever I go. I'm at the point where I still think it's quite cool; I don't think I'm at the point yet where I need to hide from people.

Q: Alex Albon has moved out to Monaco - have you got any plans to follow him?

LN: No, it's more beneficial for me to live here [in the UK]. I have moved closer to McLaren. I now live... I timed it the other day, it took me 3m20s to get from here [MTC] to my new place. That's driving within the speed limit! I was living in Guildford before, 25 minutes or so [away].

I like everything how it is now. If I move to Monaco I won't enjoy things at all, I don't think. I'm still not, truthfully, compared with the other drivers, earning the amount at which it will be more beneficial than maybe the enjoyment loss of not being able to go to London with friends and doing a lot of things that you can do here compared with Monaco.

My enjoyment takes over everything else at the moment, which is more crucial for how I want to be and how I want to live life.