McLaren’s Lando Norris says he is searching for perfection in his quest to consistently beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Formula 1.
Norris has been a close second behind Verstappen in the last two races in Canada and Spain and feels he and McLaren need to tidy up “just tiny things” to beat the world champion.
“Everything needs to be executed perfectly well and last weekend everything was not executed perfectly well,” Norris said. “And that’s where it cost us.
“I’m very happy and 99.5% I’m probably happy with.”
Norris said he felt he had been “over-critical” of his race in Spain last weekend, when being passed by Verstappen and George Russell’s Mercedes at the start cost him victory.
Verstappen was able to pass Russell at the start of the third lap, while Norris was stuck behind for the entire first stint. Norris closed to within two seconds of Verstappen by the end, but his victory in Miami in May remains his only F1 win so far.
Asked if he felt he and McLaren could strain together a series of wins, Norris said: “A run of wins… I don’t want to be over-confident and say that at all.”
But he added: “We could go on and win races. I definitely think that’s possible with how the team are performing and how I’m performing.
“But we’re against one of the best drivers ever in F1 and one of the best performing teams in F1 and then you have everyone else apart from that who can easily get in the mix too.
“Everything needs to be executed perfectly well and last weekend everything was not executed perfectly well and that one thing that wasn’t. That’s where it cost us.”
The 24-year-old Briton moved into second place in the championship with his result in Spain. He is 69 points behind Verstappen with 14 races still to go, starting in Austria this weekend.
Norris said that now he had a competitive car, the frustrations are bigger any time he does not quite do the very best he can.
“I’ve only won one race,” Norris said. “That is still amazing but everything becomes relative to what you know you are able to achieve and the reason I was frustrated was that small thing cost me.
“Being in this position you are just more hungry to win and therefore you are more disappointed when you don’t. I think it’s as simple as that. And a win in F1 means an incredible amount because it’s what I’ve dreamt about since I was a kid.”
