Norris has 'large amount of small things’ to improve on in F1 2021

Lando Norris admits he has a 'large amount of small things’ to improve on if he is to enjoy a successful 2021 F1 campaign.

Norris was beaten in the championship by McLaren teammate Carlos Sainz but it was still another impressive second season for the Briton. 

He scored his maiden F1 podium in the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix and consistently scored well to aid McLaren to its best constructors’ championship finish since 2012.

Reflecting on last season, Norris concedes there are many areas he still needs to improve after a mid-season dip in form, particularly in qualifying.

“I’ve already done a few days here in McLaren now and we’ve been reviewing a lot of the things from last year, preparing for this year,” Norris said. “It wasn’t like I had a bad ending, I think Abu Dhabi was the perfect end to last year - both in qualifying and the race was not perfect but was extremely well done from my side and I was very happy with how I ended. 

“But there was a rough patch in the middle where from a qualifying perspective I struggled a little bit more and that was just with my confidence in the car and not setting up the car quite as much as I wanted. With the developments over the season you had to drive the car in a slightly different way and it just made it a bit harder and wasn’t as optimised for how I drive the car. Towards the end of the season we biased it more back towards what I want in terms of having some more confidence in the car again, and I felt like I was able to perform better. 

“There are things I’m still understanding, we - as a team and my engineers - are understanding, but also in my second season there’s less as obvious things compared to year one to reflect on and look back on and know as easily what to improve. There’s a large amount of smaller things which are already taking place, I’m already working on the simulator and in the F3 test I did a few days ago, it’s just already trying to work on those smaller things.” 

Having spent two seasons alongside Sainz, Norris will pair up with Daniel Ricciardo.

The Australian is widely regarded as one of the top five or six drivers on the grid and Norris sees having Ricciardo as a teammate 'only as a positive'.

“Absolutely, I only see it really as a positive,” Norris added. “Mainly from he’s a guy who’s been credited, he can win races, he can score podiums, he’s good in probably every single area. So for me to learn that little bit more from a different driver, get to know someone who has a different approach on things and not kind of get into the same habits that you know from one particular driver.  

“So it’s good for me to just experience something different within Formula 1, get to see how another driver performs because in Formula 3 and Formula 4 you sometimes have three or four team-mates, so you’re able to work with a lot of different people. Whereas Formula 1 and also Formula 2 it’s just one team-mate and it’s a bit harder to know as much, you kind of get used to working in one particular way or style with that other driver. So to switch it up and get to know someone different, learn how he approaches his races and his whole mindset of Formula 1 is also going to be very interesting.

“So it’s good for me, I can learn from him, but it’s also going to be a different way of working with him compared to how I worked with Carlos in terms of helping the team out and working together as just team-mates, rather than the way I used to work with things with Carlos.”