If we wanted to list Lando Norris' exploits, it would take some time. Five coronations (including four major) in karting, with the 2014 world title; five more successes in a single-seater, where he was never defeated in a full season before joining Formula 2. Even in the anteroom of Formula 1, if the championship escaped him against George Russell, Norris is one of the rare to have grabbed second place without previous experience of Pirelli tires with rapid degradation (only Stoffel Vandoorne in 2014 and Antonio Giovinazzi in 2016 can boast of it).
Norris joined the McLaren young driver program in early 2017 and has been ideally prepared for his elite debut with a number of practice sessions. At the age of 19, he finally concluded his first F1 campaign in 11th place in the general classification, with 49 points on the clock. And yet ...
"As I approached this season, I was not very confident about my future performances," said the man. "So I'm happy to have been more or less wrong and to have done a good job, to have been able to give me more confidence and to have progressed as a driver. And I have had good results. there are a lot of things that I need to improve. "
More specifically, what was he wondering? "If I was going to be good enough. It was that simple. I did not know if I was going to be fast enough, facing a driver who had already done four years in F1. I did not know if I was going to to be fast enough for McLaren, and just for F1, against so many good drivers. I didn’t know if I could keep up.
Of course, McLaren could have given Norris the role of reserve driver for a new season, but the Briton doesn't think it would have been very helpful.
"I think if I had done another year of testing, I would have been in the same mood," he said. "These are things that you can't necessarily prepare for: the pressure of qualifying, the pressure of the race when you think about a lot of things. There are a number of them that you can train for, and there are the pre-season tests and everything. However, it is very different when we are in the action in qualifying and in the race, pressure level, compared to private tests. "
"Sometimes I was quick in practice - as much as Fernando [Alonso] or Stoffel [Vandoorne]. It gave me a little confidence, but that didn't mean anything. It didn't mean that I was going to do qualifying and a perfect race in Australia. It’s really completely different. That’s why another year of testing wouldn't have changed my mind.
Norris was, in any case, careful not to express his doubts to the team when he was established - rightly. "I'm glad he didn't tell us that!" exclaims Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren. "A 19-year-old rookie who starts in F1 with McLaren… We take for granted the acclimatization of these drivers, but there is such pressure on them…"
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