Lando Norris driven to defend F1 title but says he has ‘different mentality to Max’
Lando Norris insists he enters the new Formula One season highly motivated to retain the world championship he won for the first time last year.The McLaren driver believes his maiden triumph has only given him greater confidence in his ability to defend the title.Norris won the championship after an intense competition that went to the wire.After a three-way fight with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Norris sealed the title by just two points at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.The British driver has always been open about his approach to racing and admitted that while he had already achieved his lifelong dream, that achievement did not blunt his determination to take another championship.
“I still have many more years in Formula One and I will still try and get as many more championships as possible.If I never do, I’m so happy,” he said.“If I don’t achieve something again, I always have something that I’m very proud about.I know it’s a huge achievement but it certainly hasn’t taken away any ambition or desire to want to do it again.”Norris faced some criticism last year that he did not possess the killer instinct vital in a tough championship fight, especially when compared with his uncompromising rival Verstappen.
Norris, however, stuck to his claims that he wanted to prove he could win it his way by being a fair and honest driver,He proved the doubters wrong but in the buildup to the new season – which starts in Melbourne on 8 March – faced the question of whether he had the same steel and ambition as his Red Bull rival to become a multiple winner,“It’s quite clear that I have a different mentality and a different approach to what Max has,Good or bad, you decide,” he said,“There’s a lot of things that I still admire in Max, and I wish I had a little bit more of that here and there.
There’s still plenty of things I want to work on and I want to be better on,The baseline level of where I’m at now is already pretty good,My motivation to win is exactly the same,“If anything, I have more confidence,I’ve said in the past that I’m very much a guy who has to see something to believe in.
Did I believe I could be on pole for the first time or win a race? When I’ve done it, then I’ve gone: ‘Ah, I can do it.’ I have to find my own way and not disregard what other people have done in the past, but just understand what is always going to motivate me.”The task facing the 26-year-old is daunting.F1 is introducing a swathe of new regulations this season, drastically changing the cars and how they will be driven, alongside entirely new hybrid power units, which the drivers first experienced in pre-season testing in Barcelona last week.Managing how the McLaren’s electrical power is employed across a lap, including the use of a push-to-pass boost function, will play a major part and Norris believed it could fundamentally change F1 racing.
“I think what you’re going to see is almost more chaotic racing, depending on when people use the boost button,” he said.“Create racing potentially in better ways than you have been able to in the past and that’s probably a good thing.”The extra energy employed needs to be recovered after use allowing drivers the chance to come back at their rivals.“You’ll see more yo-yoing, more moves with extra speed,” Norris added.“You realise once you use the boost button how much that can hurt you on the next straight and how you have to get the battery back up quickly.
“The biggest challenge at the minute is battery management and knowing how to utilise that in the best way,It’s not simple,You have a very powerful battery that doesn’t last very long,So knowing how to use it at the right times, how much energy, how much of that power you use, how you split that up around the lap,Our challenge as a team, as drivers, is all of these things.
Our job is to try and be on top of that as much as possible.”The season’s second test takes place in Bahrain from Wednesday to Friday next week, with the final test a week later before the opening Australian Grand Prix.
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