‘Lando Should Have Been the One Winning’: Dreadful Record Haunts Norris Amid Piling Failures

Ever since he arrived in Formula 1, Lando Norris has always shown the ability to be a multiple-time race winner and even a world champion. However, yet again he failed to convert his pole position into a race win in Hungary. And F1 pundit Katie George recently highlighted a record on ESPN’s Unlapped podcast that Norris wouldn’t like against his name — he hasn’t converted any of his five poles into victories.

ESPN co-host Nate Saunders also looks at the situation as a negative for the British driver. He believes that Norris should not only have won all those races from pole positions, but also the ones where he inherited the lead of the race and then gave it away.

“Lando Norris has been on pole five times and has lost the lead each time before or at turn one,” Katie noted. “Maybe two times three times you chalk that up to, like, coincidence or bad luck. But I would have to believe that as a team as a driver that’s a deeper problem, would you not agree?”.

“Yeah… Lando is the one who should have won all those races… I think that’s becoming the thing with Lando…”, Saunders responded. He also highlighted how Norris has not been able to retain his pole advantage on the first lap at all of those races.

The ESPN journalist also stated that the fact the Briton has “blown” opportunities to win races before winning his maiden one in Miami may also be weighing upon his mind. Even after Miami, Norris has left race wins on the table despite having the faster car than Max Verstappen, while the Dutchman has won two.

Interestingly, Saunders also compared the dynamics between Norris and Oscar Piastri to Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. He pointed out how Norris is supposedly the better driver of the two as Leclerc is thought to be at Ferrari. However, it’s the other driver who is performing more consistently.

Before moving on to Laurence Edmondson for his insights, Saunders called Norris a ‘choke artist’ despite feeling that it was a bit harsh on the British driver.

Edmondson shares a different side to Norris’ failures from pole

Before agreeing on whether Norris has indeed become a choke artist, Edmondson shared a crucial insight. He pointed out that two of the five pole positions of Norris have come in sprint qualifying. So, the stats are not as bad as they seem to be, but he still believes that something has been going wrong for Norris during race starts.

He spoke about how his first pole position at Sochi, Russia in 2021, did not warrant such criticism because of the extremely long run down to turn 1, where it is extremely difficult to stay in the lead.

Edmondson also pointed out that Norris complained about the gear shifts in Hungary and how he couldn’t get the power down when he shifted into second, which was later confirmed by the telemetry data.