Why Norris believes he can go one better than second at Silverstone in 2024

You can still hear the roar; so many voices screaming in unison. McLaren’s Lando Norris had just taken the lead of the 2023 British Grand Prix and the Silverstone crowd was in raptures.

His first Formula 1 victory wasn’t to come that day – Max Verstappen and Red Bull were just too strong. But, following on from his Miami triumph and near-victory at F1’s only visit to a track with high-speed corners so far in 2024 (Barcelona), there’s a tantalising possibility of Norris becoming the first British winner at Silverstone since Lewis Hamilton in 2021.

“We’re closer now than we were [at Silverstone in 2023],” Norris reflects. “So, you’d hope it’s that little step better. Now there’s just more teams in general who are quick, so I think we have to take that into account. But Barcelona will be a good preview of what we’re able to do at Silverstone.”

Second in Spain was Norris’s fourth runner-up finish of the season – and the third time he’d finished under four seconds behind Verstappen. Since McLaren massively upgraded the MCL38 for May’s Miami event, it and Norris have been the world champ’s most consistent rivals. And that pressure showed in Austria.

Before then, however, McLaren’s season had started off poorly, with Norris only among the minor points finishers in the opening rounds in the Middle East as the Woking team initially didn’t kick on from its fine end to 2023, still struggling with long-corner performance and a lack of DRS efficiency.

Things were much better, though, in Australia in March and especially China in April, where Norris shone in wet sprint qualifying and with his tyre-whispering drive to hold off Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in the main race. How, then, does Norris assess his season to this point?

Although Verstappen has enjoyed the upper-hand again in 2024, Norris has persistently lurked in his mirrors and could have won more than once

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“I think it’s been very good,” he replies. “I got my first win. We’ve been very close a number of times, we’ve just been consistently one of the best teams. We were not at the beginning. It was clear in Bahrain [the opening round] that we were quite a long way off. I believed we would improve, but probably not at the rate we did.

“But I said at the beginning of the year, ‘I don’t think Red Bull are gonna dominate again, I think we can win races, I think Ferrari are gonna win races’. And all of that has been the truth.

“I didn’t expect us to catch up that kind of gap that we had to Ferrari and Red Bull that we had at the beginning of the year as quickly as we did. But that’s in a good way. So yeah, happy. Happy with what I’ve done, happy with how the team has done, especially. As always, there’s still things I want to improve on and do better.”

"When we’ve been doing better, I feel like them cheering makes more of a difference. Because you can reward them in some way"
Lando Norris

Norris is specifically referencing his qualifying form so far this season. He’s doubled his career F1 pole position tally with his effort in Spain, but hasn’t had total supremacy over (admittedly highly rated) team-mate Oscar Piastri. Indeed, Norris was beaten in the critical sessions against the clock by the Australian at Imola and in Monaco.

Norris feels that he wants “to attack more and simply it’s the wrong thing to do” with the MCL38 in qualifying, because even pressing slightly too hard on its brakes just adds too much tyre stress and so costs grip and time. “Consciously affecting that and choosing where to place that level of aggression is not easy to do,” he says.

But what’s intriguing is how again Norris is producing an unerring display of self-criticism. There are many in the F1 paddock who feel he’s too hard on himself in how he absorbs defeats and low moments, plus expands on them so openly in the media.

But, given how he’s currently on track for his best F1 championship finish and hasn’t ruled out challenging for the 2024 world title, despite Verstappen’s massive lead, it clearly works for Norris. And he refuses to change.

Norris remains self-critical as he seeks to find improvements, such as in qualifying where he lost out in Monaco to Piastri

Photo by: Erik Junius

In any case, Norris’s penchant for self-criticism is matched in his self-belief and desire to succeed for his fans and McLaren team – especially on home ground this weekend.

“For me that’s all my joy,” he concludes. “If I go and win a race and there’s literally no one there, then I’m like, ‘I don’t want to just hold a trophy for the sake of it, I want to share it with the people that I work with.’ That’s what makes it mean something and makes it exciting. And that’s exactly the same feeling for the fans.

“COVID, for example, when you win a race and you stand there and it’s just silent, it takes away that atmosphere and that feeling of meaning something. Because you want to prove your point, you want to make them happy, you want to give something back to the people who are there to support you.

“So now, when we’ve been doing better, I feel like them cheering makes more of a difference. Because you can reward them in some way. And that’s the perfect thing.”

After his Austria disappointment, Norris will be fired up to deliver on home soil

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images