Lando Norris has denied that he is too “respectful” when it comes to battling rivals in Formula 1 as he contends his general demeanour has “no relevance” to on track.
McLaren’s remarkable mid-season turnaround last summer has continued into the ongoing season as the team has now emerged as a genuine challenger to Red Bull.
But while Norris achieved his breakthrough maiden win in Miami, the Briton and McLaren have rued squandering several opportunities to add to that in recent rounds.
One such occasion came in Austria when Norris was unable to complete several overtaking moves on Verstappen in the closing laps prior to the two drivers clashing.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner asserted post-race that the McLaren driver’s ambitious lunges emanated from his agitation at having come up short in the Sprint race.
However, McLaren CEO Zak Brown disregarded a claim that Norris is not ruthless enough in wheel-to-wheel combat to beat an uncompromising racer like Verstappen.
Norris, meanwhile, is also adamant that he has no qualms about how he goes racing, expressing that criticism over his approach isn’t something he pays attention to.
“I am happy with my balance,” Norris said.
“I respect and accept what people say, but I know what I think and I know how to do, which I think I do better than 99 per cent of other people.
“I always try to take in and improve the way I work, the way I think, the way I speak.
“But I can say and think what I want and I can do it for myself better than anyone else. So I don’t care who speaks negatively about me from that point of view.”
Norris reiterated that he would not allow public opinion to impact how he chooses to approach fights against Verstappen as he doesn’t want to behave “like an idiot”.
The one-time F1 race winner also quashed the notion that his approachable manner outside of the car was compromising his chances once he straps the helmet on.
“I don’t care what people say,” Norris retorted. “I’m a good guy and I try to be respectful in every way I can.
“But that has no relevance to what happens on the track. What happened 10 years, 15 or 20 years ago is completely different from today.
“If I wanted to, I could be a lot more of a jerk and act that kind of character. But I don’t need to, I don’t want to.”
Norris cut a disenchanted figure post-race at the previous round in Silverstone as pitting one lap too late and going onto the wrong compound cost him at Silverstone.
But despite the continuous near misses, Norris has insisted that he remains in a positive mood about how he and the team have been performing across recent races.
“I feel good. Probably, in a sense, the best we’ve felt,” he stated. “Yes, we’ve come off the back of a couple of tougher races and not ideal endings.
“But I think in terms of our confidence level as a team, it’s probably higher than it’s ever been. I’m not overly optimistic or overly confident in any way.
“We’re doing so many things good, like I said many times. We’ve been the best-performing team over the last two months, almost.
“We know we can almost only get better, because we’ve got things to work on and we’re working very hard on those things.
“I feel good, also from a driving point of view. I probably feel the most on top of things, as I have felt. It’s been such a long season and things can change.
“But from a team side and from a personal side, I’m happy that things are going in the right direction.”
