Norris: 'People can write what they want' about my race starts

Lando Norris says talk surrounding his race starts is "not something that affects" him, as he prepares to start from first for the sixth time in his F1 career.

He lines for the Dutch Grand Prix from pole, with home hero Max Verstappen alongside him and team-mate Oscar Piastri behind.

The McLaren driver's performance off the line has increasingly been under the microscope of late, with closer attention being paid after a string of poor starts - like at the Belgian Grand Prix, where he dropped from fourth to seventh at the first corner.

Damningly, in the five prior times the 24-year-old has led the field away, he as failed to retain the lead by the end of the first lap.

However, the Briton insists statistics like that do not impact him and that the media can form their own opinions and "write what they want" about it.

"It's not something that affects me," the one-time grand prix winner told media including RacingNews365. 

"I'm not going to go out [in the Dutch Grand Prix] to try and suddenly prove people wrong or something.

"I'm just going to crack on and do what I got to do. So people can write what they want, they can have their own opinions.

"A lot of these things are true and are facts to people, but it's more just use them to my advantage and improve on my weaknesses. Simple as that."

Norris does not put much weight in statistics generally, with the McLaren driver highlighting that they only tell half the story - and can be easily manipulated.

The driver drew upon the overtakes award to illustrate his point, underlining how in order to do well in that category, you must be performing disproportionately badly.

"Honestly, stats to me don't mean a lot," he explained. "You kind of get respect with stats and you lose respect maybe with certain stats, but numbers on the screen, honestly, don't mean a lot from that perspective to me.

"Of course, I care, but they don't mean a lot. They don't impact me. So what people write and come up with and those kind of things are different.

"It's like the overtaking awards and stuff. You're always going to get more overtakes when you qualify terribly.

"You're going to have more chances to go forward. I've started on towards the front a lot of times. I know my stats are not the best for that. And more often than not, I've kind of gone backwards rather than holding positions.

"But that's just what I've done so far. And I've worked hard and working hard to try and change that."