McLaren F1 junior Norris: 2018 F2 campaign by far my worst season
Lando Norris believes his 2018 Formula 2 campaign has been his "worst season ever", as the McLaren junior seeks a turnaround to force his way into Formula 1

McLaren has received three approaches for Norris - who after 14 races is second in the F2 drivers' standings in his rookie season - from teams wishing to put him in an F1 seat this year.
But the reigning European Formula 3 champion believes multiple mistakes have cost him the championship lead, which was claimed by George Russell in Austria who then extended the gap to Norris to 37 points at Silverstone earlier this month.
"I think it's by far been my worst season ever," said the 18-year-old Carlin driver.
"However good second in the championship sounds, I think the amount of mistakes I've made, the problems, everything we've put together has by far been the worse.
"It's the mistakes I've made. This is the year where I need to be the opposite of that, I know I can do loads better and that's what's so annoying, I know, for a fact, I can do so much better.
"I'm making mistakes for no reason.
"Hopefully I've learned from everything I've done so far and I can be on the rise again."
Norris said overusing his Pirellis early in the Austria feature race, which resulted in him slipping back, and a crash in Monaco qualifying (pictured below) had been his biggest mistakes.

Carlin has also struggled in qualifying at times.
Mercedes F1 junior Russell outscored Norris in both Silverstone races, with Norris stalling in his pitbox in the feature race and finishing 10th.
Problems with the new for 2018 F2 car's clutch have affected most drivers, but Norris's issue was his third clutch-related one of the year after problems in Baku and at Paul Ricard.
"I stalled, simple as it gets," he said.
"It's an error from me because there's the possibility of doing a very slow pull-away, slipping the clutch as much as possible.
"I came in just behind [Arjun] Maini and when there's an opportunity you can overtake them in the pits, you don't react like you're on a road, just driving.
"You react a lot quicker, but even then, it wasn't like I just dumped the clutch.
"It just bit and that's it, I could do nothing."
The Brit did recover in the sprint race, overtaking seven cars to take a podium - including a brilliant move around the outside of Artem Markelov and Nyck de Vries at Vale.
"We were able to improve a little bit more, we were very similar to George through the race," he added.
"I just had to push a tiny bit harder to overtake one more guy. It was a clean race with no problems."

Previous article
The indie precursor to F1's talent development craze
Next article
Trident Formula 2 team drops banned Haas F1 junior Santino Ferrucci

About this article
Series | FIA F2 |
Drivers | Lando Norris |
Author | Jack Benyon |
McLaren F1 junior Norris: 2018 F2 campaign by far my worst season
Trending
The F1 hopeful living two lives to keep his dream alive
Having lost his backing from Red Bull, Richard Verschoor has had to graft to continue his ascent up the single-seater ladder. An impressive Formula 2 debut in Bahrain, despite the lateness of his deal, shows his unorthodox approach is paying dividends
Was Formula 2’s radical format switch a success?
Going into the 2021 Formula 2 season the biggest talking point wasn’t about any drivers or teams, but the new race weekend format. Created partly out of financial necessity but also to spice up the action, the Bahrain opener provided a snapshot of the positives and negatives to come
Why 2021 is make-or-break for the driver F1 needs
He was tipped for glory in FIA Formula 2 last year, but was hampered by reliability woes at inopportune moments. Guanyu Zhou knows he won't get too many more chances if he is to become China's first F1 driver, with fierce competition within the ranks of Alpine's junior stable
How Schumacher Jr earned his Haas F1 chance
Michael Schumacher may have won seven Formula 1 titles, but he didn't even compete for a crown at the second tier. Son Mick put that right in 2020, and proved to Ferrari that he was deserving of a shot at motorsport's elite category in 2021
The quintet giving Ferrari a tough decision to make
The Ferrari Driver Academy earned a podium sweep in the first Formula 2 race of the new decade in Austria last weekend. The battle between 'the FDA five' is set to be one of the major subplots of the season, but who has the best F1 prospects for 2021?
The Williams junior determined to prove Red Bull wrong
Dropped by his team in Japan and by Red Bull, Dan Ticktum's single-seater career seemed to be over last summer. But now he's on the Formula 2 grid with the reigning champion team, and he's a new protege of Williams. How did that happen?
The controversial weekend that ended an American's dream in Europe
OPINION: In the latest in our series of features looking back the recently concluded 2010s, we recall one of the many sagas of the 2018 Formula 2 season, which featured unusual fines and an unsavoury clash between team-mates
The year Leclerc fully revealed his star status
In the latest feature in our series looking back on the 2010s, we revisit Charles Leclerc's sensational Formula 2 season - where he strode among on-track highs and lows, as well as tragedy away from motorsport, to earn a place on the Formula 1 grid