Norris pleased to have no “no missed opportunities” in F1 2021

Norris sits fourth in the drivers’ championship having finished in the top five in seven of the opening eight rounds.

His form earned him a multi-year contract extension as he continues to be one of F1’s star performers in 2021.

Assessing his performances so far this season, Norris believes there have been “no missed opportunities” on race day.

“100% I’m doing better this year than I did last year,” Norris said. “I had moments last year where I was doing as well as I have this year. But more inconsistently. I would have one like this, but then followed up with a not so strong one or some silly mistakes. The main thing I have done well this year is on the consistency side of it.

“I do not think there were any missed opportunities, maybe in qualifying I could be one or two positions ahead like in Imola and things like that. In terms of race performance, there has never been anything big. I am happy with how I have been doing. I don’t think I ever get ahead of myself and get too confident or too cocky or anything… I always want more so I am never satisfied with what I have done.

“I always believe that there is potential to do better in myself and everything, even when it is a great lap like last weekend there was the potential to put the lap together, not easily, but to be ahead of both Mercedes and a bit closer to Verstappen, which would be cool. But it is the same for everyone.”

While Norris is pleased with his own performances in 2021, the young Brit remains frustrated about the sizable gap between McLaren and F1’s two leading teams - Red Bull and Mercedes.

Despite running ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez for the opening ten laps of last weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix, Norris ended up over 30 seconds behind at the end of the race.

“Yeah, I was happy with fifth because at the end of the day that was the best we could have done,” Norris added. “But knowing that I was racing for third at the start, down to fourth, and then back ahead of Perez for third, it is cool to be racing there. That is where we can be, and could be. But we ended the race getting lapped by the leader, and finishing 30 or 35 seconds behind Valtteri and Sergio.

“Every weekend you want to think what is the next thing you want to achieve, what is the next step, and for us it is this massive gap to the guys ahead. There are plenty of areas for us to improve. Ferrari were very quick as well, and I’m sure they are going to make our lives very tricky this weekend.

“So it is not easy, but in terms of wanting that one more position, or two more positions, we have to catch 30 seconds over a race distance, which is a hell of a lot of time. And something that is not easy to do from one week to another. It is pretty much impossible.”