Norris on McLaren struggles: 'I'm still having to adapt to this car'

Lando Norris feels he is still having to adapt his driving style to the current Formula 1 cars, despite having a strong season with McLaren.

The Briton has come under pressure for failing to win a race, having now equalled Nick Heidfeld's unwanted statistic of most podiums without a race win by reaching 13 with his P2 in Brazil.

Norris has been self critical about his performances at times this year, particularly in Abu Dhabi when he claimed he did a "s***t job" in qualifying when denied him from snatching pole away from Max Verstappen.

McLaren turned around their fortunes after suffering one of their worst starts to a season in 2023, but Norris has also been working to adapt to the way the current generation of cars need to be driven.

"I've worked quite a bit on trying to still adapt to this car, because it's not an easy car [to drive]," Norris told media, including RacingNews365.

"I spent the first part of the season maybe not in the right space and still how I want to drive quickly is the opposite of how this car wants to be driven.

"My natural thing of going out and driving qualifying as best as I would want is not how the car needs to be driven, so I still have to change a little bit how I have to drive the car.

"That's still been happening this year, but at the halfway point of the season I felt more confident. I feel like I've been getting, especially from a racing perspective, the most out of the car.

"I've just made a few too many mistakes in qualifying, which I think have been obvious but I defiantly think I've had some of the best races I've ever done."

Norris picks his best races

Despite the struggles, Norris had one of his most competitive seasons since his F1 debut in 2019 during the 2023 season.

When asked which race he felt was one of his best, Norris responded: "In the last six or seven races, I've had six P2's and all of them behind Max.

"Anytime out of those times something might have gone wrong [for Max] we were in the perfect position.

"Brazil was one of my best races. In terms of gap to everyone else, we had just one car ahead. Mexico was a very good race, so I think I've definitely been my best in terms of performance.