Despite making his F1 debut in 2019 and being labeled as one of the sport’s biggest talents, Lando Norris remains winless. In a recent episode of The Fast and The Curious podcast, F1TV’s Laura Winter spoke about Norris‘ career and how he puts too much pressure on himself to win.
To date, Norris has taken part in 109 races and has 15 podium finishes to his name. He has come close to winning on some occasions but luck hasn’t been on his side either.
“I know he’s so unbelievably hard on himself,” said Winter. “There’s so much should have, would have, could have from Lando when you talk to him. After whether he’s just off pole or whether he’s made a mistake like he did in the Sprint. You know he is incredibly tough on himself.”
Winter was referring to Norris’ most recent mistake at the F1 Sprint in China. He started the race from P1 but a mistake on the first lap dropped him down to P7. From there he could recover only one place by the end of the race which was due to Fernando Alonso’s retirement.
Norris is the driver with the most number of podiums without getting a race win. It is a record he isn’t proud of but also something he looks to change in the coming years.
Max Verstappen hindering Lando Norris’ chances
With the right car, Lando Norris is believed to challenge, not just for race wins but for the World Championship. Before he can dream of doing that, however, McLaren has to get the better of Red Bull to hand him some advantage over Max Verstappen- the sport’s most dominant driver at the moment.
Verstappen is driving F1’s strongest car and makes next to zero mistakes while out on the track. So far, he has had four wins in five races this campaign and they were all one-sided in his favor.
Keeping the Verstappen dominance aside, Winter believes that Norris’ time will come. She stated that with McLaren’s upcoming upgrades at the Miami GP, the gap to Red Bull could potentially become smaller.
Before Red Bull, however, Norris and Co. will have its eyes on Ferrari. The Italian outfit is 55 points ahead of McLaren in the standings and Norris’s P2 finish in China sets up a battle for second place in the Constructors’ Championship in the races to come.
