Lando Norris has no choice but to go all-out if he wants to keep his Formula 1 2026 title hopes alive, especially after falling far behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
Since McLaren brought a major upgrade package in Hungary, Norris has scored 83 points. That form has put him in a battle with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton for the runner-up spot. However, one driver has outscored him over that period: Antonelli. Now Norris trails the Mercedes driver by 106 points with nine grands prix remaining.
As a result, in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend, Norris pushed his car to the limit. Unfortunately, he made a mistake, locked up, and had to settle for fifth on the grid. There was also a technical issue that prevented him from performing at his best, as team principal Andrea Stella revealed, hoping it would be fixed for the race.
“My last lap, I made a mistake and paid the price,” Norris admitted. “But I'm at a point in the championship where I kind of have to go for pole or die trying. Of course, I paid the price for pushing too much today, but it is what it is.”
Norris also acknowledged that his top speed on the straights was a weakness. He called himself “probably the slowest on the straights” – not quite, but he was 19th-quickest in qualifying, ahead of only the Aston Martins and Nico Hulkenberg's Audi. He reckoned he might end up a ‘sitting duck’ on Baku's long straights in Saturday's race.
“Very exciting to look forward to that,” a journalist remarked with concealed sarcasm. Norris responded candidly: “Well, for you guys, yeah. For me, not so much.”
As the reigning world champion, Norris explained he is now free of the pressure that once burdened him earlier in his career. “I'm able to question myself less, because I have the reassurance inside that I can achieve what I want to achieve,” he said in Baku on Wednesday. “It's still pressure; everyone's here because they expect me to do good things and to perform every weekend, as you should and as the whole team should. I've always been the person that has to prove things to myself. I don't care what other people can prove to me, I prefer that I can do it. I always found it hard to believe I'll be able to win a race in Formula 1, until I won a race in Formula 1. I always found it hard to believe I could have what it takes to win a world championship, until I won the world championship. Now it's more that deep down I have that reassurance within myself. I have confidence and I have belief in myself, something I wish I had previously. But it's just not how I'm wired or how I work necessarily. It's not a pressure thing, it's more a confidence in ability.”
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