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After just his third season in F1 Lando Norris became McLarens senior driver, shocking for any driver but more shockingly he’s a senior driver missing something; a win. After a rough race weekend in Qatar Norris was asked what was making the car so tricky for him his response was that it wasn’t the car just him, just a lack of talent. While saying there’s a lack of talent after three podiums in a row is verifiably false the interviewer's question does bring up a wider discussion around how such a talented driver can’t seem to get the 1. Norris came close to a win once again in Austin but couldn’t quite make it, finishing 2nd for a 4th podium in a row. For the answer to the question of how a driver so good seems to miss the crowning jewel of any racers career, all it takes is a quick look at the man inside the machinery.
In light of Verstppens dominance many have claimed it’s just the car and any driver could succeed, his team mate Sergio Perez, who’s had as good a season as almost any other driver on the grid would have had, proved this theory wrong. Verstappen’s style of driving along with the car is why he succeeds, it takes car and driver to win. All drivers have their own personal style that strongly impacts their race; a good car can make a podium but it’s the driver that wins. With this in mind, looking at McLarens senior drivers style can show us an aspect of his win drought. Looking at races over his career using a combination of race statistics and on board views we can start to piece together the man in the machine.
The 2023-24 season started out absolutely awful for McLaren with the team having created a tractor instead of an F1 car. While this wasn’t too much of a surprise especially given the disaster class that was the 2022 season a surprise was waiting for the team when they brought upgrades just after summer break. Immediately after these upgrades McLaren began climbing the ranks. Norris got an early lead on his teammate, getting on the podium and leading a few laps in Silverstone he then went on to podium in Hungary, Singapore, Japan, Qatar, and most recently Austin. Over his career the driver has managed 12 podiums in 100 races giving him a 12% podium rate, and with these podiums becoming more frequent in the new and improved McLaren it’s clear the 23 year old has winning potential. Norris has actually officially tied driver Stefan Johansson for the second most podiums without a race win and only needs one more to tie for first. When asked about the on track struggle for 1st in an interview in Austin he said they just didn’t have the pace to beat a RedBull this coming after he led the first 17 laps of the race. McLaren has proven the car to be fast and Norris has proven himself to be a good driver, but how is it that he actually drives.
A combination of the pedal cam and the onboard from Silverstone 2022 give us an inside look into Norris’s driving style. Looking back a bit to when Formula one brought back the worlds greatest innovation otherwise known as the pedal cam, we see Norris follows his own race line. Down the straight he keeps it traditional but as he goes into the corners he breaks just the smallest bit early and more interestingly throttles quite a bit before he’s out of his turn. It can be assumed he does this as a way to gain a speed advantage and get out of corners as fast as possible. Norris isn’t the first driver to try and augment corners, some of the most successful drivers of all time have a similar approach, Micheal Schumacher and Max Verstappen both take corners much closer to track limits as it allows them access to the straight faster than competitors. When done correctly driving styles with tight corners can shave essential time off and help with a win, the issue is more often than not Norris’s corners add time.
The issue with throttling early is even when in perfect conditions an early throttle gives less control and combined with the early braking, which shifts the apex, the driver not only doesn’t carry as much speed out of the corner but since the car hasn’t fully turned even with the best car control a little wind or a slick track will send the car barreling towards track limits. Norris has already found himself victim to this many times. Most recently in the Austin GP the young driver led the race in the beginning but after some harsh tire deg and a pit stop he found himself second to Verstappen. Around lap 30 the wind in Austin picked up at this exact same time Norris began losing speed to Verstappen his on board earlier in the race showed he went slightly further than any other drivers on corners, never off but he was already pushing it. After the wind picked up Norris’s corner issue went from causing a millisecond loss to impacting his time so badly other drivers noticed. A very similar thing happened in Qatar where the slicker track exacerbated his already existing issues when taking these corners costing him.
When asked about the car during the race Norris brought up issues with tire degradation. An aspect of this tire deg is the way he cuts the corners not only is he losing at best milliseconds every corner but he also runs further over track limits putting the tires under more strain. This was highlighted when his engineer came over the radio and told him to watch going over the corners as it was harming the tires. In today’s racing the margin for error in all non RedBull cars is paper thin, the at best milliseconds Norris loses in those corners adds up and costs him wins.
There is very little lack of talent in Formula one, the one driver who does lack talent certainly isn’t in McLaren. Success in Formula 1 doesn’t come from one single aspect, it takes a competitive car, a strong driver, and a solid strategy to even compete for the top. Lando Norris has the new and highly improved McLaren, he has a team that understands strategy, and despite his claims to the contrary he has talent, what he needs now is to look at where he loses time. Not where the car loses time but where he does reflecting on the man behind the machine is how you become a champion. Watch any race look close and you’ll see Lando Norris’s racing style is putting a dent on his time and his chances of winning. When you get to the top it’s the milliseconds on corners that make or break your race right now it’s the milliseconds keeping Norris from the thing every driver drives for; a win.
