Why Norris learned to become comfortably numb

Heading into August in 2017, McLaren was in a very tough place. The team had just 11 points to its name from the opening 11 rounds of the season, and nine of them had come at the Hungarian GP – the final race before the summer shutdown.

But before many of the team could take some time off to lick any wounds, there was an in-season test to handle. There were two that year, starting with Bahrain in April and then another two days of running at the Hungaroring before the summer break started.

On the second of those days, tthe team ran a 17-year-old Lando Norris in modern Formula 1 machinery for the first time. Norris was in the midst of a title-winning European Formula 3 season, ahead of his Formula 2 campaign and subsequent step up to race in F1 18 months later.

Even at the time of his promotion, times were still not easy for McLaren. Norris’ first season ended with the team leading the midfield but far adrift of the top three teams. There was progress, but only one podium to show from the year, and it ended up 594 points behind Mercedes.

To go from that point to dominating the standings this year is some turnaround.

“I'm proud of just what we've achieved and the journey that we've had,” Norris tells RACER. “Do I wish I could have won races earlier and we had a chance of doing what we've done this year earlier? 100%, but everyone just has a different opportunity in life.

“When Lewis [Hamilton] came into Formula 1, they were dominating the championships. It was quite different to when I came in in 2019.

“I'm really not fussed about those types of things. I would have loved to have won races earlier, but it's also just a cool story that I stayed with the team as long as I did when I had some other opportunities in other places and elsewhere, where I maybe could have won races earlier and gone on to try and achieve more at an earlier point.”

Last year delivered McLaren’s first constructors’ title since 1998, but the drivers’ eluded Norris as Max Verstappen had built up too big of an advantage early on. This time around, the double is on, but calling which of Norris and Oscar Piastri will take the individual crown is still anyone’s guess.

“It's a good thing that it's just us as a team [fighting for the title],” Norris admits. “That's an amazing thing to have. And just the thought, it's just us two, it's great.

“Then you have the benefit of, you can see everything each other does. But it's also a bad thing, sometimes, because he'll have his better weekends, I'll have my better weekends. He can easily see where he's a bit off or where he needs to improve, and I can, at the same time, on a weekend when he's a bit better and more strong, then I can easily see where he's doing a better job.

“So you can escape less. You can kind of not ride your good weekends as easily, because we're both quite good at making up or learning from each other very, very quickly, which makes things even tougher in a way. By the end of the weekend, you're both just as strong as each other.

“So, it's tricky, but nothing else has changed. We still get along. We still talk the same amount. All the meetings are the same. I guess the difference is when we're free to race, but in quite a different way to last year.

Norris got his first taste of a modern F1 car as a teenaged F3 frontrunner during testing in Hungary in 2017. Mark Sutton/Getty Images

“I guess there are some different experiences, but I think it's a good thing, just that it's me against him and him against me. And that's not all we can focus on – it’s still just as much as thinking about the others at times – but from a driving point of view, that is how it is. But it doesn't change anything apart from just go out and do your best every time.”

Even though the target remains to perform to the best of his ability, Norris admits fighting for a title makes everything matter that little bit more, which in turn perhaps means the drivers focus on the details with even greater attention.

But there are other aspects where he has had to learn to step back, particularly with relation to how invested fans and media alike are in his performances and hopes of becoming champion.

“You have to learn to be more numb to all of those things," he says. "And that's not in a bad way; it's just you can't rely on those things. It's not good to rely on those things as much. It's probably something I was… not relying on but just being too easily affected and persuaded too much by.

"Now, of course you love when people say great things, and it hurts a bit when people say bad things, but that's it. It shouldn't affect anything more than those kind of brief moments that you're reading something or you're seeing something or whatever it is, and that's also one of the parts that come with experience.

“I think it's very different for everyone. Some people come in, couldn't care less about it and aren't affected by it. Some people, I'd say more like me, came in quite heavily affected by it. But I've learned how to deal with those things and be more numb to those things.”

Norris’ use of the word “numb” is not to say he ignores comments or critics, but the 25-year-old says he tries to take the positives that comes from having people backing him, while not then carrying a weight of responsibility for their reactions when things don’t go well.

“It’s not that I don't value them, because when I have all my fans and supporters and stuff, they want me to do better than anyone else and that's great," he says. "And you try and ride all of that and use that to your advantage. But of course that means at times of more disappointment, there are more people that are complaining if things aren't going well, and you just try to not let that affect you.

“I think you have to almost force yourself to be more numb to outside situations and more stick to what you do as the individual, and listen to my close team around me – my trainers, my engineers, my friends – then kind of stick to the fact those people can really lead you and guide you in different directions because they're all there for you.

“But from the outside it's a little bit more of good and bad noise, and you have to learn to be more numb to that.”

Dealing with all of the different aspects of a title fight is clearly a challenge, but a welcome one. And one that Norris could only have dreamed of when he first got behind the wheel of a then-current McLaren car in Hungary eight years ago.

“What makes me happier now, more than anything, is that we're in the position we are now," he says. "This year is our time to show what we've got. It hasn't been for, what, more like 15 years or something? For us to show what we've got this year is pretty exciting.

“I'm proud of sticking with the team and also just what we've managed to achieve over the last 24 months. I think that's the coolest part of it all.”