The Formula 1 points leader, Lando Norris, says that he must improve the aspects of his mentality after the most difficult weekend of his 2025 season so far.
Norris finished third in Bahrain, but did it via a delicate qualification which left him sixth, a penalty to be out of position on the grid, and a stumbling recovery which included the overcrowding by Mercedes of George Russell at the end of the race, while being teammate Oscar Piastri until a dominant victory.
Norris still runs the championship for the first time in his F1 career, but he has trouble adapting to the McLaren MCL39, without the confidence that led him to be generally stronger from McLaren in 2024.
He detailed Sunday evening in Bahrain how the advantage of McLaren’s car in 2025 rejected it because it is “far from the capacity I” at the moment.
What Norris is struggling with is a physical adaptation to this car, but the way he reacts to this struggle is just as important.
This raised once again questions about his mentality, which was examined last year when he could not set up a serious and supported title challenge against Max Verstappen despite developing by car capable of a car.
Norris said he knew that his mentality was not perfect and detailed an area of improvement before the Saudi general practitioner this weekend.
“It’s a balance, I think I’m clearly trying to improve,” said Norris on Thursday.
“As this week, try to remember good things. I think of bad things, negative things, more than I think of positive points.
“I have to remember that I run the championship and that I won the first race and things like that, and I’m on the podium with each race. I have to remember rather than being able to remember.
“It’s also because I want to do, and I want to get the most out of each session, I want to achieve my potential. Right now, I just don’t realize my potential and there is no reason why I am satisfied with this.
“I know I’m difficult and I know I’m hard with myself, but for 95%, I think it’s a good thing. I think that is what makes me who I am and makes myself have a chance in Formula 1 and be with McLaren and fight for a world championship.
“I accept that there is probably the last percent last which can be a little percent very important where I probably say too many negatives and which enters my head and I do not think of the positive points as much as I should.
“If I was wondering or said to myself at the start of the year, I could lead the championship after four races, I would probably be very happy.
“There are a lot of things that I would be so happy: starting the season with the way in which the first race of the year in Australia went and realizing the podiums, transforming a bad weekend (around) and always a podium.
“I probably don’t remember enough of them and that’s probably something, the main domain that I would say that I have to improve.”
Norris spent three days between Bahrain and Jeddah “relaxing” because he “needed reset”, although he admitted: “As for the mind of each athlete and each driver, as much as you try to move away, you always think of a lot.
Does Norris have the mentality to be champion?
The question of the Norris mentality was discussed in the latest episode of the Podcast Race F1 with the club members of the race asking questions about Norris against Piastri.
“This must be a concern for his title prospects; mental resilience is part of what makes a champion, and he manages it differently from all the other best drivers I have seen, although a little like James Hunt, who could also become a little neurotic,” said Mark Hughes about Norris.
“Lando uses his self-criticism almost as a motivation, like:” Come Muppet “- he speaks to a second person, saying that the world hears.
“He says that it works for him and that it is generally a waste of time to try to be like someone else. You can focus on improving aspects of your own game and it is quite capable of it, but you cannot be like someone else, you cannot be that you are, your heart, and you can learn to acquire a better understanding, but you cannot fundamentally change the way you are wired.
“In a strong stress activity like Motor Racing, this call will always come from the center. He cannot suddenly be Max Verstappen or Oscar Piastri, he must find a way that works for him.
“This could be unlocked by changes to the car or by a new understanding which allows it to return to driving in a natural flow, then the confidence that is based up and it becomes incredibly difficult to beat.
“I would say that all the routes are open at this early stage of the season. Although I consider it more vulnerable to its makeup than Piastri, I do not see this as something that landed to win a title.
“He is still there before him if he can find his own path through this semi-crisis.”
Ben Anderson said Norris had shown great mental growth since his recruit season in 2019.
“It is fair to say that when he was new in Formula 1, he lacked maturity and that he lacked mental strength, he admitted himself, he did not have the impression that he belonged, he seemed in my opinion of a step behind people like George Russell who came at the same time, I know that I know what I want,” said.
“But I have the impression that he has sort of growing in his own skin since then. So I don’t think that because he seems to be in his feelings, he excited very publicly.
“You do not see a model in the driving where he reprimands himself horribly, is called a Muppet, so the next session is terrible and the next race is terrible and you get this kind of Lando race? Even Bahrain, it is very good – Small Erry, but the breed, but the breed is very strong, you have a race, but the race, but the breed, The air of the race, the defeat did it completely and it finished ”.
“So there is mental resilience there and we already talked about the way he improved until the end of 2024 when he was fighting Max for the first time. He made mistakes, was discovered, but then he worked on these things, trying to come back better.
“I cannot think that we can extrapolate now only because Norris has had a difficult start, it is not so comfortable in the car that suddenly, his mentality is turned because he reprimands so as not to do a better job.
“It would only take a little thing and he could suddenly hit the kind of shape you saw in Singapore last year, where he is untouchable.
“So many things concern what you feel in the car. I have the impression that Norris has always been uncomfortable in this series of McLarens. It has not been able to drive it as he wishes, he must always adapt and find a different way, adopt different techniques that are not natural to him.
“And it’s always the crucial equation, trying to keep all the things in which you are naturally good and use them when necessary while taking these other things that do not come as naturally and absorbing them and I just think that we started the season in a place where Norris does naturally does not work as well.”
The Piastri contrast
One thing that will count against Norris is how much he has a strong teammate he has in Piastri.
As the director of the McLaren team said, Andrea Stella in Bahrain: “There is no noise in Oscar’s head, which is a very useful characteristic of Formula 1, and I think it allows him to progress, to process information, to process what is available in situations as a means of improving to improve at a very rapid rate.”
So, could Piastri’s “robust” mentality be a decisive factor in the title race should become an intra-mclaren battle?
“Piastri certainly seems to be very strong, no noise in his brain of Stella, is not distracted, very focused on the processes,” said Edd Straw.
“It does not become too highly excited when things are fine, does not be discouraged when things are not doing well, or at least it does not seem because you never know what is happening in someone’s head. There could be troubles in there, but everything indicates that there is not.
“I would say that if you apply the classic state of mind of a champion driver, Piastri seems to adapt much better.
“We must say that although it has never been tested in an appropriate world championship fight, it starts this year, but as it will take place, it will become more and more intense and it will be an unexplored territory for him.
“Even if he is super robust as he seems to be, everyone has his point where they start to take place a little. Even the big tested established do so.
“But I would say that on the balance of probabilities, the state of mind and the force of Piastri could be a decisive factor in the championship, but sometimes you must let it play.
“If I had to choose to be a driver in this situation, I would like to be the one with the Piastri mentality.”
