Norris says he feels nerves regardless of title fight · RaceFans

Lando Norris admits he still feels nervous before every session in his sixth season of racing in Formula 1, regardless of the championship situation.

The McLaren driver scored his second victory of the season with a dominant win last weekend in the Netherlands, finishing over 20 seconds ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen.

Norris heads into this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza as arguably the favourite for victory given the recent performance shown by McLaren. He has nine rounds left to cut his 70-point deficit to Verstappen in the championship.

Asked if he planned on changing his driving style or his approach to a race weekend now he is in a strong position, Norris said “probably not as much as you think.”

“I think I struggled a lot with this when I started in Formula 1 – my first and second year and into my third,” Norris admitted. “Because I struggled with it so much back then, I feel like I learned pretty well how to handle it.

“That’s also helped me even in the position that I am in now. I know I’m maybe not directly in the fight of the championship where I’m neck-and-neck with Max, but just dealing with more questions and the pressure of everyone thinking that I have to deliver every single weekend. Also knowing myself that I have to deliver every single weekend.

“But I think because I struggled a bit with it, or quite a bit with it, in the past, I feel like I’m able to deal with it in a much better way now and therefore it doesn’t have much of an effect.

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“I know there’s more pressure – the team are probably going to feel a little bit more pressure and externally there will be more pressure on me. But it’s also up to me to deal with it in the way that I feel best. At the same time, therefore, I don’t really feel it that much.

“I’m comfortable that I just have to go out and drive and that’s all I can do, really – not think about these external things. So in the place I am now, fighting for wins and fighting in the championship, honestly I feel like it’s another weekend.”

Norris insists he does not feel any additional pressure on him now he is at the very front of the field and says he has always contended with pressure throughout his previous five seasons in F1.

“I don’t think of it at all,” he says. “I think there’s always pressure.

“I still get so nervous for qualifying, for the races. I still get just as excited and just as nervous. I don’t eat. I barely eat anything on Sundays, I struggle to drink anything on Sundays – just because of nerves and just because of pressure. But I think ‘how do you turn it into a positive thing?’. How do you not let it affect you in a bad way and how can you actually use it in a good way to help you focus on the correct things and so on. But I’m sure I do now and probably will forever.

“When you enter Q3, or any qualifying lap when you have to go out and deliver, it gives you butterflies every time, because there’s so much nerves, so much pressure. If you do one thing – brake centimetres or a metre too late, or you turn in at the wrong time or whatever it is – it’s finished. Game over.

“And the knowledge of that just puts you under a very tense feeling. But also it’s an amazing feeling at the same time that I don’t feel like maybe you can replicate in many other sports, in many other things – I’m not too sure. But I still get nervous and I probably will forever get nervous.”

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