Why Norris doesn’t expect Mr Nice Guy praise for much longer

It’s fair to say that Lando Norris has had a bit of a breakthrough year in Formula 1. That maiden win may have eluded him (and you don’t get much closer than what happened at the Russian Grand Prix), but the McLaren driver has ticked an awful lots of other boxes.

The 22-year-old has racked up some strong podium finishes. He’s shone against his more experienced team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, kept the Mercedes and Red Bull number two drivers under pressure in the points’ standings, and been brilliantly consistent in terms of bringing home everything his car was capable of.

It’s no wonder that world champions like Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have heaped praise on Norris for what he has delivered so early in his career. Hamilton paid his compatriot an in-race compliment after their battle for second in the Austrian Grand Prix, while Alonso labelled the man who replaced him at McLaren in 2019 a “rock star” when they did a mid-season helmet swap.

But while such plaudits are something that Norris happily accepts as being “cool”, he equally understands that such credit is not what he got involved in F1 for. Having nice words said about you doesn’t make you any quicker, and never gets logged in the record books. Wins and titles are all that matters.

Moreover, Norris thinks that it is also all too easy for the more established superstars to be dishing out the praise at youngsters who aren’t yet proper rivals for the title. And that’s why, as he eyes the potential opportunities that F1’s new 2022 rules can give McLaren next year, he reckons the back slapping may stop. For all the right reasons.

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“We are still at the point with George [Russell] and myself, and Alex [Albon] or Charles [Leclerc], it causes a lot of compliments,” says Norris, speaking to selected media including Autosport over lunch in London last week about the young and older generation divide in F1.

Norris says there's still a friendly relationship between he and his younger contemporaries because they aren't deemed a threat

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“We get along and we chat and so on, but I think things can always change when you become competitive against each other. I think we're still in the friendly phase, because we never race each other. But if all of a sudden we go to next year, and in the middle of championship it is me and Max and Lewis, then I don't think there'll be as much Mr Nice Guy. I think it's just the way it works.”

While the potential of mixing it in the world title fight may be a step above what his own McLaren team believe is realistic for 2022, Norris himself does not want to leave any stone unturned if things do click into place. He feels that he's developed this season in all areas of his driving, which has given him the confidence to believe that if he has a car that is capable of winning, he can go and do just that.

“I'm very happy with the progress that I've made throughout this year, and especially from last year into this year,” he explains. “Starting the season strong and so on, I think we're in the fight with Ferrari because of how strong my first half of the season was, with the podiums. Some of our decisions, like the soft tyre in Imola, gained us these extra points and we outscored them.

“I think there's definitely some things to still work on, because there's still some tracks and ways of driving I need to improve. When the car is like how it's been the last couple years, and I know exactly how to drive it, that's when I can be very strong.

"If I was to fight for wins in the first race next year, especially after being in a position I was in Russia - I think I'll feel very confident" Lando Norris

“But when it starts becoming even trickier to drive, and on tracks where there is no perfect performance window, it's just a very difficult car to drive. And we're not that quick. So then, trying to find how to drive that car is what I struggle with a little bit more.

“I think that's one of my biggest areas to improve still. But apart from that, my starts and first laps, decision making, strategy, and tyre saving: all of these things are a lot better than what they were last year.”

There are also some big lessons to take out from what happened in Russia. Having had the Sochi race under control in dry conditions as he ran in the lead ahead of Hamilton, a late race shower turned things on its head. It was McLaren and Norris’ determination to stick it out on slicks that proved so costly in the end, as the rain intensified and wrecked his afternoon.

Norris believes all elements of his game have improved this year, allowing him to run at the sharp end in Austria

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

At the time it was a difficult moment for Norris to process. But, looking back, it’s been valuable in showing him how every factor needs to be considered when it comes to delivering a win.

“I think I'm over it,” he smiles. “Of course, when people remind me of it, then it's still very disappointing. It's still like that first opportunity to win a race in F1... so there's so many things which would have made this amazing.

“It’s still gutting, but I don't think, in a way, that I regret anything that I did. We made the wrong decision. But I wouldn't say I regret anything that I did from my side. I did what I thought was best at the time. And there's been other scenarios in past years where people have lost races through just making a smaller mistake, you know, or sometimes even bigger mistakes.

“I also never feel like I can just say it's the team's fault. I could have advised them better. But if you just think of it in simple terms of me, and Lewis, we had the same mentality of what we thought was best, and that was to stay on track. And if it didn't rain any more, I'm 99.99% sure, I would have won the race.

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“The only person who would have beaten me is Lewis, if he managed to get past. And even when he boxed, if it still didn't rain any more, I'm then 100% sure I would have won the race, as he wouldn't have been able to catch me. I think it's just a good learning lesson.”

While the victory didn’t come that day, what Russia did ultimately deliver to Norris was the belief that he can win. And, as he carries over all the lessons from 2021, that level of confidence could be critical if McLaren does hit the ground running with the new generation of cars.

“I definitely feel much more confident that if I was to fight for wins in the first race next year, especially after being in a position I was in Russia - I think I'll feel very confident,” adds Norris. “Of course, I'll still be nervous and whatever. But I think I'll be a lot more confident than if I didn't have the year I've had this year, and I hadn't experienced some of the things that I've experienced this season.

Norris had the win in his grasp in Sochi before rain shower hit

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“I feel much more confident of knowing what I've got to do when I'm in that position. So I think from that side, then I'm ready for it. But I guess you'll never know how much better you're going to do in the season. Because a lot of it depends on the car and things like that. Sometimes you have just got to be lucky, sometimes you're unlucky.

"I feel like I can continue and make some improvements over the winter again and go into next year starting off how I feel like I've ended, which is still better than how I started this season" Lando Norris

“I worked hard over the winter to make a lot of these improvements. The one thing that made me very happy is seeing the improvements actually have an effect and take place and show straight away in terms of results. So from how I feel, and from what I've learned and things that, I feel like I can continue and make some improvements over the winter again and go into next year starting off how I feel like I've ended, which is still better than how I started this season.”

A step up would of course put Norris in that potential mix at the front, where the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen view him more as a threat that someone who deserves praise. But even if things become more hardcore, and the pleasantries are replaced with some cut-throat rivalry, Norris says he is ready to be as hard as he needs to be in that tussle.

“I'm maybe not as tough on the outside as like what Max is, but it depends,” he says. “I don't think you have to be.

“There's certain scenarios where I think it's good to be. But I don’t think it is something that has to or will always change an outcome of things just because it looks aggressive from the outside.”

Norris says he's ready to fight, but he doesn't think he'll need to adopt a different approach

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images