F1 News
Dealing with disappointments: Norris increasingly able to handle setbacks
- Toby McLuskie
Starting in third place, perhaps hoping for a podium finish, but ultimately finishing the Spanish Grand Prix in 17th place. Lando Norris has had better races before, and naturally, the Briton was disappointed with the result. As the McLaren driver has had to deal with setbacks more often in his career. Sometimes it comes fairly easily, at other times absolutely not.
To Sky Sports, Norris confesses that how he gets over a bad result varies from situation to situation. If it was his own fault, it generally takes longer to process all the disappointment, the McLaren driver says. "If it's my mistake whether I crash or spin or get a penalty if it's 100 per cent down to me or even 50 per cent down to me it's a lot worse than if it's just because we don't have the pace in the car or things like that."
In Russia, Norris had hardest moment
Norris had the most difficult moment in 2021, in Russia. At the afterwards final Grand Prix in Sochi, Norris seemed to be heading for his first Grand Prix win. And then the rain came... Unlike the competition, Norris (actually himself) decided not to stop for rain tyres, which cost him dearly. He slid off the wet track, throwing away what seemed like a certain victory after all.
"Sochi 2021 was probably one of the hardest things to get over, not simply because of what happened but because of what we almost achieved", Norris says. But, he says, in 2019 and 2020, for example, he always found it very difficult to cope with a setback; in recent years, he has fared much better. Above all, he says he learns from his mistakes and tries "to move on.'