Lando Norris told Motorsport Week that he and the McLaren team are “100%” at their most confident after securing pole position for the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.
Since Norris’ maiden win at Miami in May, McLaren and the British driver have elevated their respective levels.
His last-gasp pole lap in Barcelona on Saturday follows repeated challenges for victory at Imola, Monaco and Canada.
Motorsport Week asked Norris in Saturday’s post-qualifying press conference if his and McLaren’s confidence is at an all-time high.
“100% from a team point of view,” was the emphatic answer.
“I said at the beginning of the season, we were going to win and we were going to fight against Red Bull and that they weren’t going to dominate like they had done and it turned out exactly to be that, which is, I think, good for everyone, including everyone watching.”
“But we have more to do,” argued Norris, who secured his second career pole position by 0.020s over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
“I don’t think we had potentially the best car out there today.
‘I feel like we did a perfect lap and it was only just pole. But it’s very difficult to know. I think everyone in the top 10 is at such a high level that it’s probably hard to differentiate what the differences are between what drivers are able to achieve.”
Less than four-tenths of a second covered the top six in qualifying, and the nine who set a time in Q3 all lapped within one second of each other, backing up Norris’ claim that the level at the top of Formula 1’s pecking order is as high as ever.
But Norris’ faith in his team is backed up by his faith in his own abilities and he believed pole on Saturday came from him extracting everything out of his performance, something he hasn’t always been able to do in qualifying by his own admission.
“I’ve kind of commented the last few weeks about just not having the ability to kind of unlock something more come qualifying and kind of find a limit and just get a bit stuck,” he said.
“I just find it hard or very difficult to progress a lot through qualifying and kind of just get into a nice flow and a good rhythm.
“So we’ve been working pretty hard on the simulator and with my team on trying to improve on all of these things because compared to others.
“But this weekend, I kind of come in with a different approach and reset some things and definitely feel like I’ve been on a better footing. So I have been confident. It’s not often I say that I’ve been confident, but the last couple of months, the car’s been performing well. It’s a bit more to what I want.”
Norris wasn’t going to count all of his chickens however, and added that the McLaren machine under him was “Definitely not where I need it and where I am most confident, but we’re working on it.
“It’s all credit to the team because without the car we had today, I wouldn’t be on pole.”
