Norris: Letdowns on Saturday, making up for it on a Sunday

Norris had a rough start to the his fifth season with McLaren, the team delivering a car that lacked pace and was only good for fighting in the tail end of the F1 grid.

It wasn't until midseason, in Austria, when McLaren upgraded their MCL60 and turned it into a contender and Norris did well to deliver seven podiums.

However, in an interview with Motorsport.com, the Briton admitted he needed to improve in some areas pointing out that "it was clear that there’s places I need to work on and places I didn’t always deliver as much as I should’ve done".

Explaining further, he said: "But there’s also a lot of cases of once that did happen, how did I come back from that and overcome that the next day?

"Which was generally the letdowns on a Saturday and making up for it on a Sunday. And I think I did exactly that," he added. "95% of the time was, yeah, even when I made those mistakes, which I’m always happy to admit and I’ve always said and so on, was how do I bounce back the next day and turn up on Sunday with the kind of clear mindset of, ‘OK, I’m starting in this position, how can I do my best job from here?’

"And I think all of those races genuinely were… actually turned out to be some of my better races!" he maintained.

Norris is known to be hard on himself when making mistakes, but he insists that is how he is wired, how he rolls, which makes him the driver he is today.

He commented: "I’m, as much as I get annoyed with myself on Saturdays at times and people are like, ‘you shouldn’t beat yourself up’ and all of that stuff.

"A lot of my best performances come then on that next day. And it doesn’t affect me when I go and drive the next day, because I’m like, ‘oh I still just messed up Saturday’.

"Just because I say it and things, it doesn’t mean that. And I think a lot of people have different opinions on it, but I’ve always been that way.

"Since karting, I’ve always been like that. It’s the way I got brought up and it’s the way I’ve developed into being the driver that I am today.

"And, at times, maybe it’s not the best thing and I do get just very frustrated and down over a lot of it, but just because I care about doing a good job and trying to deliver for the team.

"So, I do it, not that I just purposely try to do it, but because it’s just the way that I work best. And it’s the way that I’m able to bounce back best.

"Therefore, I’ve always just been very honest when I think I’ve done a good job and bad job," the 24-year-old concluded.

Norris finished the 2023 F1 season sixth in the Drivers' Championship with 205 points. He has a pole position to his name from Sochi in 2021 but is still chasing that elusive maiden win in top flight.