Lando Norris believes the 2023 season represented his “best” in Formula 1 yet, highlighting how becoming more adaptable was his biggest improvement to past years.
McLaren endured a rollercoaster campaign that comprised running an underdeveloped car in the first races to ending as Red Bull’s most consistent challenger at the sharp end.
Norris capitalised on McLaren’s remarkable resurgence to log a career-best seven podiums en route to amassing 205 points as he placed sixth in the Drivers’ Championship.
Meanwhile, team-mate Oscar Piastri excelled in his rookie campaign to score a Sprint win in Qatar alongside two rostrum appearances to help McLaren pip Aston Martin to fourth.
“I think it’s been our best year as a team. I guess a lot it’s just for the obvious reasons – the success that we’ve been able to have from after the start that we’ve had,” he told Autosport.
When asked to name his strongest display, Norris answered: “I think there’s been a lot of great performances, both in terms of just racing through and having some good ones.”
The McLaren ace proceeded to pinpoint Mexico, where he climbed through the order from 17th to fifth after a torrid qualifying, as the “highlight” moment from his outings.
But despite McLaren’s exceptional recovery, Norris admitted the team’s revamped MCL60 car remained on a “knife edge” and made him adapt his driving style each weekend.
“I’m still not super comfortable every weekend on [thinking], ‘the car is going to do this this weekend and it does that’, half the time it doesn’t,” the 24-year-old reiterated.
“So, then I’m sort of like, ‘Ok, now I need to drive it a bit more like this’ and all of these things.”
Nevertheless, the Briton believes that he took a considerable step in his development when it came to optimising the potential of the car in an extensive range of circumstances.
“No matter the conditions, no matter if it was hot or cold or if the car was really quick or struggled a bit more, or if the set-up was where I wanted it or where it wasn’t, if I started at the front or the back – I could always kind of make the most of whatever situation I was in,” Norris explained.
“And I think that’s the thing I’ve improved on this year. [It] was being able to adapt even more to all of these different scenarios and different conditions that challenge you.”
Norris revealed he delved into “a lot of simulator stuff”, which included comparing his data with Piastri but also former team-mates Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo.
“We went back that far to kind of understand what I was doing good and bad then, what he [Sainz] was doing good and bad then, and same for Daniel and same for Oscar now,” he added.
