Lando Norris says he’s looking forward to resetting over the summer break after… “Silly things and mistakes” have damaged their title chances in recent races.
The McLaren driver started fourth in Belgium, but went off the track at the first corner and was only seventh at the end of the lap.
Although the Woking-based team was expected to have good pace relative to the other leading teams before the race, it had only made up one more position to Carlos Sainz before the chequered flag. However, George Russell’s disqualification meant that it was left with a fifth place finish.
“I misjudged him, honestly” he said when formu1a.uno asked him about his beginning. “I didn’t want to get taken out at the first corner, so I left the gap and misjudged the exit a bit. I lost four or five positions.”
“Simply impossible to overtake, Overtaking was shit todayAnd I think there was very little overtaking on track, mostly at pit stops. There was some overtaking, but only when you had a 10-lap tyre advantage.
“Otherwise, it was a bit of a tricky race with overtaking. And I thought we were fast, the car was fast. I just don’t think we made the most of what we could have done.”
Norris admitted that things have not been going well for him in recent weeks.
“I think I just need to reset” he said. “I’ve given away a lot of points in the last three or four races, just because of stupid things, mistakes and bad starts. Now it’s the first corner.
“I do not know why. It’s just nonsense, it’s not even difficult stuff. It’s just the first corner, trying to stay out of trouble, trying to make sure there’s a gap and not get hit, and then I go off the track. So I do some stupid things. The pace is good. The team is doing an amazing job.
“So I’m happy. And in a way, I feel like I just don’t want to take a break.I just want to keep going, because we are in good shape. Even today, I felt that the pace was very strong.
“But in the last two or three races I haven’t been as good as I needed to be and I’ve lost a lot of points, so I hope I can come back stronger.”
Asked to explain his problems, he highlighted his recent starts as a key weakness.
“There are many different things” he said. “They’re just different things. Obviously, my start hasn’t been very good.
“I probably lost a fair amount of points at the finish line, and now in the first corner, again, I could easily be on the podium or even more. So there is no single reason. Maybe it is just me trying too hard and paying the price for it.”
As for his plan to reset during the break, Norris added: “Forget about it. There’s still another week of reports and stuff like that, so I’ll be at the factory for half of next week.”
“We just looked at everything and made sure that we took a break on a positive note. I think we have, honestly, I feel like there are a lot of positives. Things just haven’t worked out for us.
“But I feel like we still have what we need and what we want, so I’m happy that we have what it takes to fight and put up a good fight. But I just haven’t been there from my side.
“So go through my stuff and go away and forget about it for a while, and then come back stronger.”
