Norris highlights key area to improve in F1 title fight

Lando Norris has highlighted his "consistency" as a key area he needs to improve in order to pose a title threat to Max Verstappen. 

The McLaren driver is second in the drivers' championship but sits 78 points adrift of Verstappen, who built an advantage amid a strong opening run of grands prix this year.

A weakness of Norris' this season that the Briton himself has highlighted is his starts, as he failed to capitalise on pole position in Hungary after being overtaken by Oscar Piastri into the first corner. 

Norris made a further error at the recent Belgian Grand Prix, where he ran wide at the first corner and lost several places. 

"A place I need to improve... there isn't a [general] singular thing. It's consistency," Norris told RacingNews365 in an exclusive interview. "I definitely think a little bit of just cleaning a few areas. My starts, that kind of thing.

"It's not like I'm doing this every time wrong in my starts, or this every time wrong when I'm leading. I really don't think it's got anything to do with pressure or being in a position I've not been in for a while. 

"Honestly, I was pretty chilled [in Hungary], I probably was the most chilled, maybe that's the problem? It wasn't that, it's just there's been different reasonings almost every time."

McLaren consistency

Norris has emerged victorious once this season, securing his maiden race win at the Miami Grand Prix earlier in the campaign.

The 24-year-old has only finished outside the top five on three occasions this year, and one of those was the Austrian Grand Prix where he was forced to retire following a clash with Verstappen. 

However, Norris has faced some criticism for only winning one race in the first half of the season, having been in contention for several more throughout the opening rounds.

"It's just about bringing all of it together and just tidying it up a touch," added Norris. "But on 95 per cent of things, I feel like I'm in a good position. I know I've only won one race. I see a lot of people saying, 'Oh, he's only won one race', that kind of thing.

"I won one race, but we're still in the fight. And sometimes it's not always about winning as much as you always want it to be. But for the most part, I've been there, second, first, third, second, third, fourth, second, third.

"And that's also a big part of the championship, not just having one amazing race and going, 'we nailed that' and then having an absolute shocker the next one.

"What's been a bad weekend for us and for me at the minute, it's been first, second, third, fourth, pretty much the whole time. I'm pretty happy."