“More pressure” on me to win title after 2024, Norris admits · F1 · RaceFans

Lando Norris says he feels more pressure to win the championship this year after finishing runner-up to Max Verstappen last season.

But the McLaren driver believes his breakthrough 2024 campaign, in which he scored his first four grand prix wins, has given him valuable experience of the intensity of a championship fight.

“Last year was a great year because now I [was] on pole quite a bit, how do I deal with those things now – leading the race, how do I deal with those things? I kind of experienced a little bit of everything last year, apart from leading the championship, that’s something I’ve still never done.

“But I raced against Max and I came out on top sometimes, he came out behind sometimes, those types of things. So I learned a lot and I think last year set me up very nicely to come into this year and actually be very calm.

“I know there’s a lot more pressure on me and everyone is like ‘now he’s got to do it’. But I’m very relaxed and calm and I feel the most relaxed I’ve ever been, but in a good way and in a ready way.”

McLaren won the constructors’ championship in 2024 and became the first Formula 1 team to reveal their new car for the upcoming season last week. Norris said it is vital they do not repeat their poor starts to recent seasons.

“We have not started the season well, ever,” he told The Fast and the Curious. “This year is the first one we’re coming in like ‘we’ve done it now’, now there is pressure and there’s the expectation of ‘you’ve done it and now you have to start it’ [the way you finished it].

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“That’s our target, but it’s difficult. Everyone’s trying to improve and make as many changes and everything as possible. But I think we are confident we’ve figured out a lot of stuff and we definitely want to start how we ended.”

Verstappen claimed he would have won last year’s title in the McLaren. Norris received some criticism last year for failing to capitalise on chances to out-score his rival.

He said he’s happy to take reasonable criticism, but has no time for those who spread false stories about him and McLaren.

“I’m all up for people having their own opinions and saying, ‘what happens if he did this’, ‘should he have done that’,” he said. “I respect all those things, and a lot of those people’s jobs is to kind of comment on these things and so forth.

“The only thing you don’t respect is people who think they know better when they most likely don’t because they weren’t in that situation, they’re not living that moment. And false stuff. Stuff that’s just like, ‘how the hell has someone come up with that’?”

He admitted some false stories have had an effect on him in the past. “People don’t call it conspiracy theories now, they just call it ‘their facts’,” said Norris. “‘My personal facts’. That’s not how it works. That’s not the definition of ‘the facts’.

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“Again, you learn how to deal with these things, and that’s something I probably was affected by a lot more before. I think last year, I was. You’ve just got to live with it and roll with it, the fact that people are criticising you or supporting you.

“Of course, you always are much happier about those supporters. But I know I’m going to get criticised. I criticise myself all the time. I want my team to criticise me. And the thing I probably almost hate the most in the world is people who try to make me feel good and do it in the wrong way. I prefer the criticism than a ‘fake’ happiness.”