Lando Norris has insisted he remains confident in his abilities, even as he admitted he has no answer as to what he can do to work better with his McLaren car after a difficult weekend. The British driver, soundly beaten at he Bahrain Grand Prix by his teammate Oscar Piastri, said he is hurt by the frustration he feels.
Norris finished third at the Sakhir circuit, behind Piastri who took the flag a full 15 seconds up the road from Mercedes’ George Russell in second. After qualifying poorly in sixth, a performance he admitted left him “clueless”, an exasperated Norris felt he was no closer to getting to grips with the car after the race.
“I wish I knew the answer,” he said. “I don’t have an answer honestly, even for myself. I don’t know. You just know when you’re an athlete, when you’re a driver, you just know when things click, when you feel confident, when you feel comfortable. I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say.”
Norris has managed to hold his lead in the world championship by three points from Piastri but the Australian now has two wins to his teammate’s one and notably looks entirely at ease with the MCL39. He won with a dominant drive from pole to flag, demonstrating the McLaren is very much the class of the field this season.
Norris said he had no doubts about his ability but was at a loss as to why he could not make the most of what is a championship-winning car. “I’m confident I have everything I need, I have got what it takes,” he said.
“I have no doubt about that, that I am good enough. But something’s just not clicking with me in the car. I’m not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season. I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car, how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car.
“This year, I could not have felt more opposite so far. Even in Australia, where I won the race, never felt comfortable, never felt confident. The car was just mega and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute.”
Russell also elaborated on the host of issues which had beset his car in the final third of the race. “It was exceptionally difficult towards the end,” the Mercedes driver said.
“I had all sorts of problems with the car. The steering wheel, I was losing all my data and the brake pedal went into a failure mode, so I had to do all these resets. One minute the brakes were working properly, the next they weren’t. So I was pretty pleased when I saw the chequered flag, to be honest.”
