Lando Norris: McLaren driver 'nowhere near the capability that I have' after Bahrain GP amid struggle with 2025 car
McLaren's championship leader says "something's not clicking" for him with the team's pacesetting car after a challenging weekend in Bahrain; watch every session of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix next weekend with coverage starting Friday, live on Sky Sports F1
Sunday 13 April 2025 21:21, UK
Lando Norris has opened up on his difficulties with McLaren's car that he believes mean he is currently operating "nowhere near the capability that I have" after a difficult Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.
Norris finished third from sixth on the grid in Sunday's Bahrain race to retain a narrow world championship lead, with team-mate Oscar Piastri now his nearest challenger - three points behind - after the Australian delivered a dominant victory from pole.
After mistakes in qualifying had left him five places behind the sister McLaren on the grid, Norris admitted he ultimately fell one place short of his race-day target given "my goal for today was P2".
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That quest for second was compromised by several incidents during the 57-lap race.
Norris collected a five-second penalty for starting the race in front of his grid box and then experienced complications passing rivals in wheel-to-wheel combat.
He had to make two passes on Lewis Hamilton after the mid-race Safety Car, with his first was illegally completed off the track, while he also took several laps to dispatch the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
Up into third, Norris was then ultimately unable to find a way past George Russell's Mercedes during a tense end to the race.
"I paid the price with mistakes that I shouldn't make," said Norris to Sky Sports F1.
"Otherwise I think the pace was pretty strong.
"Difficult [race]. Whether I would have got George or not [with an extra lap] it doesn't matter, I didn't.
"The positive is I got some points. The negative is we didn't achieve what we should have achieved."
'I'm nowhere near the capability that I have'
Norris went into the season as the title favourite with the bookmakers and most pundits, a status he underlined by winning the opening race in Australia last month.
However, the Briton has not won either of the three grands prix since - of which Piastri has now claimed two and Max Verstappen the other - with it emerging that Norris is struggling to extract the best from McLaren's pacesetting MCL39 car.
"Honestly, I'm surprised I'm achieving anything I'm achieving at the minute with how I feel in the car," he told Sky Sports.
"I'm not comfortable, I'm not happy. I'm not feeling good, so to be getting the results I'm getting at the minute I'm still quite surprised by.
"Just something's not clicking. I don't have an answer."
Speaking in the post-race press conference, Norris continued: "I'm not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season. I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car, how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car.
"This year I could not have felt more opposite so far. Even in Australia, whether or not I won the race, I never felt confident.
"The car was just mega and that's helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute. I'm just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say."
Lando 'not doubting myself' despite stinging self criticism
Not for the first time in his F1 career after qualifying on Saturday, the famously self-critical Norris strongly rebuked himself in public for the errors that left him off the pace of Piastri.
Across various interviews after the disappointing session, the 25-year-old said he was "clueless", "just not quick enough" and that it was "like I've just never driven a Formula 1 car before".
Twenty-four-hours on and Norris clarified that while he is searching for answers as to why he is not gelling with his car, he is not doubting his own ability.
"I spent a lot of time, even last night. I left late last night to look into everything and understand what I'm struggling with, what's not clicking," he said.
"Trying to figure out what's changed from last year to this year. Is it me? Is it some of the car? It's complicated.
"But I'm not doubting myself, even though sometimes it may seem like that. It's just something's not gelling, something's not clicking, and therefore I just don't feel comfortable when I'm in the car.
"I'm confident - like I know I've got what it takes… when you're not confident in the car, to know what the limit is, what to do in the slow speed, high speed, any corner - yeah, I'm never going to be as quick as I need to be. And especially when you're fighting the best in the world. As soon as you're not settled, then it's going to be an issue - and that's what happening now."
He added: "I don't have the answers now, we've got a lot of work to do to understand these things because I'm still confident I can do a great job.
"Considering how I feel, for me to have had a win and a P2 and some of these results I'm surprised by even with how bad I feel. Just work to do. I'll keep my head down, keep working hard, that's all I can do for now."
Stella praises Norris' 'relatively unique' approach
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, meanwhile, gave an interesting insight after the race into how he felt Norris was handling driving a car he was not yet settled in.
Stella, who has previously worked with world champions including Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button, said: "It is an uncomfortable situation but the way Lando is navigating through this situation, from a substantial point of view, is the same as other champions that I've seen in the past.
"I think Lando, if anything, is more stylistic. He's there where he's in a way relatively unique in how open he is, in how somehow he makes it visible, like when you hear the post-qualifying interview, he was quite self-critical. If I know some other champions in the past, they would be much more about the problem is somewhere else.
"And there's something important here, which is something I admire of Lando, and makes me very privileged and lucky as a team principal, that he tends to absorb and point the blame on himself.
"Like Saturday in Q3, he didn't put the lap together, he raises his hand, offloading entirely the team.
"He said, 'you guys, it was not your problem, it was me', which is inaccurate, because we know that we have made some changes to the car, which made Lando's life a bit more difficult.
"We know technically what this is, Lando is adapting to this, potentially this might have played a bit more on Oscar's hand and we are working together to fix it.
"But, some drivers as soon as there's a problem they go, 'oh, the team' and the finger is going to the team.
"This is not healthy, not something on which you build. So when we judge a driver, we should consider even these aspects. Certainly for me as a team principal, they are so important to keep building , otherwise there's internal conflict.
"Even if you have potential, you know what happens? You don't use the potential because all your energy goes into internal fighting, drivers against the team, the pressure of the races, rather than just focusing on performance."
Formula 1 completes its first triple-header of 2025 in Jeddah with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix next weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
