“You feel ready to beat them” – Lando Norris on his confidence boost after battling with the “top guys” 

Lando Norris believes that his on-track battles with Mercedes and Red Bull drivers throughout the 2021 season have given him the confidence to “battle and beat” them in future scenarios.

Speaking in an interview with GPFans post the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the 22-year-old said:

“Every time I race against Lewis (Hamilton), or (Valtteri) Bottas, or Max (Verstappen), or (Sergio) Perez, I think the only thing it really gives you is more confidence that you know that when you are more often in this position, whether it’s next year or in two years, you feel ready to race against them all the time and ready to beat them.”

“The only thing it really gives you is confidence, that if you’re there more often or you have a better car, there’s no reason why they should be able to beat you if you're in the same car as them.”

Norris says that he has had to adapt his driving style while battling closely with “top guys” in faster cars. He said:

“They’re not just in better cars, but generally, the guys who are in better cars are also going to be the more experienced or better drivers.”

“So, there’s a little bit more pressure because you know that they’ll think of every plan or strategy possible for how to get past you and so on.”

“That’s the only thing, is that you know that they’ll be thinking of every single thing possible in order to attack you and to race against you and overtake you.”

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Lando Norris misses out on “best of the rest” title despite early season heroics

Lando Norris impressed for McLaren throughout the first half of the 2021 season, putting in stellar performances to score more points than Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez. At times, Norris looked to have enough pace to even threaten the top teams for pole positions and race wins.

In the second round of the season at Imola, he came agonizingly close to scoring his first career pole position before making a mistake and running wide. Similarly, he was fastest in both Q1 and Q2 during the wet qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, before crashing out in Q3.

Lando Norris finally managed to grab a pole at the Russian Grand Prix, after learning from his past mistakes.

He, however, failed to convert that pole into his first career victory, despite leading for the majority of the race distance, while convincingly holding off Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.

Nevertheless, Lando Norris finished P7 in the driver’s standings despite McLaren tailing off during the final part of the season, courtesy of his early-season heroics, which included four podium finishes.