Lando Norris reveals unusual 'waste' in fixing F1 pain point

Lando Norris has explained how taking a break from social media helped him overcome his difficulties in F1 qualifying this season, arguing it is a "waste" of his life.

After taking pole for the season-opening round in Australia, the McLaren driver had struggled over one lap. This included being off the pace of Oscar Piastri and multiple high-profile mistakes or crashes in Q3.

In turn, this allowed his team-mate to overturn a 23-point deficit in the championship standings to now lead the drivers' title fight.

However, having curtailed his use of social media, Norris was able to re-find his qualifying form by taking pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix, which he subsequently went on to win.

When asked to what extent coming off it has positively impacted his performances, the six-time grand prix winner acknowledged it had indeed had an affect.

"I mean, impossible to say how much," Norris told media including RacingNews365. "But I enjoy… I still have my accounts, I still have social media, still do posts and that stuff.

"I still have it to text my friends and keep in contact with people, and that’s it. I’m very, very happy because I feel like it’s a waste of my life.

"I have better things to focus on. I have had many things to focus on and try to improve on. There’s many, many factors that add up to a day like [securing pole at Monaco]. I can certainly say that’s one of them.

"So, I’m happy. Everyone can do their own thing, but for me, I’m happy to stay away from that."

Norris is not the first F1 driver to speak about social media. Last year, Carlos Sainz urged the motorsport media to help combat online toxicity.

And recently, McLaren junior Alex Dunne revealed he had to delete social media apps from his phone for the amount of abuse he was being subjected to for causing the first-corner crash in the F2 feature race at the Circuit de Monaco.