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Norris ‘working on something bigger’ amid championship goals as he admits race win celebrations have changed
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Lando Norris has admitted that both he and the McLaren team have changed their approach when it comes to how they celebrate a race win, with the focus now on the bigger goal of winning the championship with seven races remaining.
Norris took the first victory of his F1 career back in Miami before following this up with another P1 result at the Dutch Grand Prix. Along the way the Briton has built up a tally of 254 points to hold second place in the drivers’ standings – and he has continued to cut into Max Verstappen’s lead, which currently stands at 59 points.
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McLaren, meanwhile, are now 20 points ahead of Red Bull in the constructors’ standings, having taken a strong haul of points last time out in Azerbaijan thanks to Oscar Piastri’s win and Norris’ P4 result.
With both title fights hotting up, Norris was asked ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix if his mental approach to each race weekend has changed now that he is aware of needing to score a certain amount of points.
“Yeah, I mean the easiest thing is to look at how much I celebrated Miami versus how much I celebrated in Zandvoort,” the 24-year-old explained. “I didn’t really celebrate at all in Zandvoort, it was just a little fist bump and a couple of smiles, but that was it.
Norris says that both he and the McLaren team have changed their approach to celebrating a race win
“If I was completely out of the championship I probably would’ve celebrated more, but considering I know it kind of means something towards a bigger prospect, it just felt like a smaller thing on that day and the meaning of it.
“A win always means just as much to someone, it’s just one win at the minute because my goal is bigger than having one race win. It’s not as satisfying because I’m working on something bigger.
“We’ve changed, I think the whole team have changed how much we celebrate even a top five or just about getting onto the podium last year. Now we’re celebrating four wins this year, pole positions, that kind of thing.
“You get a little bit more used to it, the team get a bit more used to it, but it still means a huge amount. It’s still a credit for all the hard work we’re putting in, but at the minute we have bigger goals than just winning one race on one weekend. I think we can be satisfied but, to be happy, I think we have to achieve our goal at the end of the year.”
Despite this, Norris insists that he is not focusing on the exact number of points he needs to make up to Verstappen and, while he is feeling positive, he remains aware of the challenge posed by McLaren’s rivals entering into the Singapore event.
Norris is now 59 points away from Verstappen in the drivers' standings after his P4 result in Azerbaijan
“The 59 points doesn’t change any of my thoughts, but I feel good,” said Norris. “For many races I’ve felt good going into every weekend, especially after last weekend we’re confident we can be strong and compete against Ferrari and Red Bull, but it’s still tough.
“Ferrari are performing very well. If you look at how closely Charles [Leclerc] could follow Oscar for the whole race, they were clearly actually a much quicker car than what we were. I think we’re still competing against some very quick cars and it’ll be the same again this weekend.”
On the other side of the garage, Piastri is also feeling positive after his victory in Baku, with the Australian commenting: “It is a nice confidence boost, definitely. It’s similar in some ways [here] but very different in a lot of others. We should be competitive this weekend.
“The biggest thing I took from last weekend was the execution of the race from myself, from the whole team. I don’t think it was our most competitive track of the year, I think we’ve definitely had a couple more races where we’ve been quicker than that relative to the competition.
“So to be able to pull off a win like that, when Ferrari especially were so competitive, was a nice confidence boost.”
2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Piastri crosses the line to take a hard-fought second win of the season
However, in terms of his own drivers’ championship prospects, Piastri has stated that this is not something he is thinking about.
“Honestly, not much,” the 23-year-old commented when asked whether this is something he is focused on. “I think maintaining the lead in the constructors’ championship is by far a bigger target.
“I’m not out of the running for the drivers’ championship, but I think on average I need to score over 10 points more per weekend than Max. I can try and go out and win every race, but it’s now at the point where I need other things to start happening to win that, and for that to happen for seven races in a row is not very realistic.
“Of course, I’ll try and go into every weekend to get the best result I can, and if the picture starts to look a bit brighter then that’s a bonus, but I’m under no illusion that I’m well and truly in the fight for the championship. It’s more if some crazy stuff happens then I’ll be there to work my way into the fight.”
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