The GP in Spain concluded with a McLaren one-two – Oscar Piastri first, Lando Norris second – ahead of Charles Leclerc. It was a good weekend for the Briton, even though he couldn’t match the pace of his teammate. Or at least, he didn’t have the pace to overtake him.
During qualifying, Norris took second place behind Oscar Piastri, and that’s also how today’s race ended. Despite a slightly chaotic start to the GP, he managed to regain the position he had lost to Verstappen and closed the gap to the other McLaren.
After regaining second place, the Grand Prix continued quite calmly for the two papaya cars. Even after the restart, following the safety car, the McLarens’ positions were never in danger.
Norris’ words
With the new directive that changed front wings for all cars on the grid, some expected McLaren to lose performance and be reeled in by other teams. In truth, for the Woking team, nothing changed. According to Lando Norris, certain people “just like to spread baseless rumours.”
The Briton said: “That’s just because people make stuff up. People have no idea, they don’t know what’s going on. They don’t have real data, so… they just like to create unfounded rumours. From what I see, [the new directive] has harmed others more than us, so in the end, draw your own conclusions.”
He was then asked what the key moments of his race were. The 25-year-old didn’t say much, unsure of what was being asked.
“That I finished second? I don’t know. I’m not sure what the key moments were. Obviously, I passed Max [Verstappen] fairly quickly,” he stated briefly.
At that point, he was asked to talk about the start. They asked about the opening situation where the two McLarens and Verstappen were fighting for first position, just before the Dutchman passed Norris.
“Was it like that? You [Piastri] remember it? You know? I don’t, I didn’t notice it. The only thing I remember is the lights went out very quickly and caught me a bit off guard,” the Briton admitted before going into more detail. “And yeah, after that I couldn’t get the slipstream. Oscar [Piastri] didn’t give me the tow down to Turn 1, and then I focused on braking into Turn 1. That’s where Max [Verstappen] passed me, so I guess it turned into a long race. I think we knew our pace was strong, so I didn’t need to do anything too risky in Turn 1.”
“But yeah, I don’t think I lost an easy win. I think Oscar drove really well throughout the whole race today and had a good day yesterday. I had the pace to go with him, but not enough to catch him or put him under pressure,” Norris explained.
Verstappen vs Russell and the MCL39
He was also asked what he thought about the late-race incident between Verstappen’s Red Bull and Russell’s Mercedes.
McLaren’s No. 4 said: “Oscar told me he has some interesting thoughts about it, so… I’ll let him speak. […] I don’t know what happened. I didn’t hear what Max said, and I didn’t hear what George [Russell] said. So I don’t think it’s something I should comment on right now.”
Are there still circuits where we’ll see the MCL39 struggle and not dominate like it has so far this year? Obviously, Norris hopes not, but he keeps a watchful eye on the competition. He knows all the teams are giving their best to catch up.
The 25-year-old commented: “No, at least I hope not. The team is doing a great job. You know, we’ve got really strong competition. Many complained about our car and introduced this TD, and nothing changed. The team has done an amazing job giving us a car that’s great everywhere. It’s the best car on the grid. So we’re really proud to drive these cars every weekend. We’ve got to give the team credit every day.”
“But, like Oscar said, there are still places where we’re vulnerable, and especially in qualifying, the fight gets very tight. Obviously, yesterday was the biggest margin of the year, but people seem to forget how tight the other qualifying sessions were. We’ve been separated by tenths and hundredths. And not everything went smoothly in qualifying,” he added. “So I think that’ll be the case again in the next races. But it’s clear we have the best average car and we’re still the strongest in the race – though it’s also clear that others are catching up. Our race gaps were probably much bigger earlier in the year than they are now. So yeah, I think the competition is catching up, but we just have to keep our heads down and keep working hard.”
Mental health
As a final question, he was asked what he usually does when negative thoughts enter his mind. Lando Norris is one of the most open drivers when it comes to discussing mental health. Sometimes, the comments directed at him are very harsh, and that could trigger unnecessary thoughts. The McLaren driver has his own ways to avoid being affected by such thoughts and spoke briefly about them.
The 25-year-old stated: “Yeah, umm… it’s hard to answer. I mean, sometimes you just don’t stop those thoughts. Yeah, sometimes you can’t stop them even when you want to focus only on positives and things like that. But I think what helps me, or at least what I’ve learned to do most of the time, is turn those thoughts into something productive.”
“Turn them into ways to improve, to understand things,” the Briton continued. “Yeah, turn them into something positive, I guess. Rather than letting them bring me down, at least. But I think it’s… well, not normal, but I think many people feel the same. Everyone has good days and less good days. I don’t need other people telling me what to do. I’ve got my team, I’ve got my people around me who tell me when I’m doing well and when I’m not. And that’s all I need.”
“I don’t need other people, I don’t need to listen or watch anything else. I only care about the people around me, who understand and know me. But also having them around, you know, having a great team around me is probably one of the most important things. Because I still have those tough days. But yeah, the most important thing is understanding those thoughts and turning them into something productive and positive,” Lando Norris concluded at the end of the Spanish Grand Prix.
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