Lando Norris admits he is aware “in the back of my head” that modifying his driving style to suit the 2022 Formula 1 cars could prove difficult given he adapted so well to the esoteric characteristics of the last generation of McLaren machinery.
Although Norris is confident he will be able to successfully transition to cars built to new regulations that represent arguably the biggest rule changes in F1 history, he is taking a rigorous approach to his preparation to ensure that.
Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo proved last year how unusual the driving-style demands of the McLaren were, particularly in low- and medium-speed corner entries where significant combined braking and turning was required. Norris, who was familiar with the traits of the car from his previous experience, proved more adept at extracting the performance from the car.
“In a way,” said Norris when asked by The Race if he has a heightened awareness of how important it is for him to adapt given the struggles Ricciardo had in adapting to the esoteric 2021 McLaren.
“Of course, that’s in the back of my head and in the winter I’ve spent a lot of time not just driving the car [in the simulator] but being prepared to drive in different ways and be ready to drive in different driving styles and so on.
“Our car was quite specific the past few years in how you had to drive it, how you had to get the performance out of it and that showed with Daniel coming into the car.
“Some cars it’s easier to adapt to others. Carlos [Sainz] showed at Ferrari that he did a very good job in adapting much quicker. Daniel came to McLaren and it was much harder to adapt to our car and the characteristics.
“I want to say, touch wood, that it has been one of my strengths in the past to adapt to new cars and different driving styles.
“I got a feeling for it when I did the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, when you had to go from the F2 car to the DTM car to the GT3, I think that was one of my better points, being able to jump into any of them and do a good job.
“That’s something that I enjoy and a challenge that I like, so I’m looking forward to this and making sure that I’m not too carried away with how last year’s car was.”
Norris citing the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, which he won in 2016, suggests this was a formative experience in sharpening his adaptability. The tests for this took place late that year, after he’d won both the two-litre Formula Renault Eurocup and NEC championships.
The evaluation tests involved driving the F2 car that was used for the short-lived FIA Formula Two Championship from 2009-2012, the McLaren 650S GT3 car and the Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM car.
His adaptability did indeed impress the judges, particularly how well he took to a DTM car that was very different to what Norris, who turned 17 that year, was used to.
Norris’s adaptability was clear as he climbed the junior ranks. But the way he adapted to F1, initially with his Friday outings in the second half of 2018 ahead of his graduation to a race seat the following season, showed how strong he was in this area given the limited running.
So while you could argue that Norris has specialised in an esoteric McLaren and might therefore find himself having to back out of a cul-de-sac in adapting to this year’s car, it’s also the case that he has very effectively adapted to what team-mate Daniel Ricciardo has described as a “peculiar” McLaren. That suggests he’s well-equipped to take on the challenge of the 2022 cars.
“It might some people’s driving styles more than others and it could potentially be a bad one for me, but I guess that’s life, you’ve got to deal with it,” said Norris. “Before F1 I would have to deal with it in every category I did, I only did one year in every series, so every year I had to adapt to something new and make the most of that.
“But you don’t in other series get the excuse of ‘it’s my first year’. In those series, the first year is the year you’ve really got to perform. It’s a similar thing for me – I don’t ever want to use that as an excuse to come in and go I feel I need to adapt to the car.
“But it is the case, and it has been proven by champions and race winners, that a Formula 1 car, in particular, is not an easy thing to get your head round and to really get in that zone when you are extracting every bit of performance out of the car, which I felt I did more of last year.
“That’s what Daniel struggled to do. It felt like at times he was doing good but then there’s that next little step, which is very difficult too.
“I hope it just suits my driving style and everything’s groovy, but there’s definitely going to be things I’m going to have to adapt to and change. That’s going to be the case for everyone.”
Norris also sees this as a big opportunity to seize the initiative early in the season.
With just six days of pre-season testing, on top of any running on filming days, most drivers will only have three days behind the wheel before the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Norris believes that hitting the ground running will be an even bigger advantage than it has in the past.
“As a driver, it’s definitely a big opportunity to come out of the box strong [which] will always be a good thing, especially if you have to change your driving style.
“The quicker you get adapted, the quicker you can just keep making an evolution on that driving style and getting better and better. That’s a very important thing.
“Potentially, you can make a bigger difference than in previous years if you understand how to drive the car and so on. It’s a big opportunity for us to make the most of it and adapt the driving style if we have to change it.
“That’s a question I don’t know just yet. We obviously have some ideas from the simulator and so on, but until we actually get on track and see what it’s like that’s a question that needs to be answered.
“Of course, it’s an opportunity for me to continue last year’s progress and try and make that next step.
Norris suggested that the need to be adaptable could extend beyond the initial running with the McLaren MCL36 given how much the cars will evolve in the early stages of the new rules cycle.
Inevitably, the cars that hit the track for pre-season testing and the early races will be the least refined and likely the trickiest to drive of this generation of grand prix machines, with Norris raising the possibility they could gradually become more like the old cars as they are improved.
“It’s something that could change a lot throughout the season,” said Norris when asked by The Race about how big the shift in the demands of the car will be.
“When the car’s still in an underdeveloped stage, it could be you have to change a lot of things. But the more we develop it, the more we bring it back to last year’s car and speed and so on then maybe the more normal it feels and the more you can drive it like last year’s car.
“It’s difficult to say. From the sim, there’s things here and there which I’ve already had to change and adapt to.”
