Apr.14 (GMM) Max Verstappen may be fading as a championship threat, but Lando Norris is increasingly feeling the heat.
Already battling a reputation for being fast but with questionable mental strength, championship leader Norris’ cool teammate Oscar Piastri moved within three points of the top-ranked McLaren in Bahrain.
Team boss Andrea Stella admitted to Sky Deutschland that it had been a “sloppy” weekend for the Briton.
“An incredible performance from Oscar and also from Lando, who was a bit sloppy, otherwise it could have been a one-two finish,” said the Italian.
Norris was typically highly critical of himself.
“To be honest, I’m surprised I’m achieving anything in terms of results at the moment, given my current feelings behind the wheel of the car,” Viaplay quotes the 25-year-old as saying.
“It’s just not working, it’s not clicking, and I don’t have the answers.”
However, it’s not just that Piastri is finding the dominant 2025 McLaren easier to handle, Norris is also making multiple mistakes – like being out of position on the grid on top of several errors on track. In the ‘cool down’ room after Sunday’s Bahrain GP, he described himself as a “muppet”.
Some see that kind of talk and behaviour as mental weakness.
“I do think Piastri is mentally stronger, even if Norris is faster on one lap,” Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko said recently.
When told a few days later that his comments were controversial, the Austrian added: “But we know that – it’s nothing new.”
Former F1 driver Christijan Albers says Norris stands out as a driver who is far too open about his struggles with the media. “You still have to stand there and give a confident interview,” he told Viaplay.
“You can see from his attitude that he is not as mentally strong as the others. That’s really striking to me.”
Another ex-F1 racer, Giedo van der Garde, agrees: “You can always say ‘Listen, I made a mistake and wasn’t completely on top of things today’. But you can tell that there is no confidence left in himself sometimes.”
And yet another former F1 driver, Ralf Schumacher, thinks those around Norris need to urgently step in to help salvage Norris’ mental state before the next race in mere days.
“This must not happen to a future world champion,” he said, referring to Norris’ scrappy Bahrain GP weekend.
“If I was his manager or team boss, I’d take his phone away and put him in a hotel and tell him to exercise. He shouldn’t listen to any of us or read all the articles coming out. It hurts him, it haunts him.
“Everyone is talking about his weaknesses. Then he should come to the next race in a completely neutral way. That would help him and that’s what I would do.”
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