How Norris pulled off the toughest race drive of F1 2022

OPINION: As 2022 ended up being a much more trying season for Lando Norris compared to his previous two Formula 1 campaigns, it’s worth looking back on the McLaren driver’s toughest race this year. After all, that’s where he really showed his class in a midfield season where success was harder to grab and spot

Alex Kalinauckas Dec 21, 2022, 9:12 AM

Upd: Dec 21, 2022, 10:55 AM

“I would say quite confidently, the toughest race of my life. I struggled so much. I was very happy with myself just completing the race. Maybe it sounds easy and whatever – and people say I'm over-exaggerating – but I was in a very bad way at that point.”

It says much about the attitudes of our current society that Lando Norris feels the need to clarify exactly how awful he felt completing the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix with a bout of tonsillitis. But damn the killjoys, the constant online bores. Anyone who saw the 23-year-old or even heard him speak that weekend – a rare thing in the circumstances – understands just how tough he had it.

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Author Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.