Lando Norris has said he can’t “put a smile on my face” believing he ruined another podium chance after a poor qualifying.
Norris started the Mexican Grand Prix in 17th following a poor saturday.
Not safe before his final lap, the Brit got caught up in traffic and then ran wide and had to abort the lap.
However, despite having no sight of pole on the grid, he managed to climb to 5th in a race claimed by commentator Martin Brundle to be one of his best.
[adrotate banner=”10″]
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.
Despite his excellent drive, Norris believes that he should have been on the podium. The first race he has not been on the podium since Singapore, he was disappointed not to make it five in a row.
Speaking to Autosport he said: “I know people complain at why I’m so disappointed at times. And it’s because of days like today. Of course, I’m going to be disappointed, right?
“Like there’s a chance to finish on the podium and get another trophy, score more points. Why would I ever be happy about a day like Saturday?
[adrotate banner=”5″]
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.
“I moved on very quickly, I moved on better than I did in Qatar. And we put a lot of focus on Sunday. And I think that was evident, and then it paid off. But yeah, I’m never going to be happy after a day like Saturday, right? Because I know what we’re capable of doing.”
Norris was due to start second at the Qatar Grand Prix, however, due to track limits, he eventually started 10th.
“You think of the ‘what could have beens’? And yeah, there’s too many what could have beens at the minute.”
Much like in Mexico, he managed to recover from the misfortune to prove himself to be one of the quickest on the day.
However, a podium was achieved in Qatar while in Mexico it seemed too far out of reach, even with a red flag.
This likely was not helped by Norris’ poor start following the race restart in which he lost several positions.
However, he was quick to suggest that he won’t overthink this weekend.
“And when you have a day like today [Sunday], then you think of the ‘what could have beens’? And yeah, there’s too many what could have beens at the minute. I just need to tidy some things up, and then things can start to roll.”
[adrotate banner=”3″]
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.
“There’s 700-800 people who are relying on me to do a good job.”
He did admit though he has felt like he let the team down unable to keep the team’s impressive performance going.
McLaren’s recent performance seemed halted at Mexico with Oscar Piastri suffering along with Norris at different points during the weekend.
Piastri showed similar pace to Mercedes in qualifying but struggled once again on race pace.
For Norris, these mistakes don’t simple affect him, he believes it can affect the whole team.
He said: “There’s 700-800 people who are relying on me to do a good job. So when you don’t, how can I put a smile on my face?
“I think that I dealt with it a lot better than I did last time. Mainly because it wasn’t for a pole or for a win. But at the same time I moved on, and got my head down onto today. And it all paid off. So I’m happy with that.”
However, although a messy weekend for him, he still enjoyed the race.
He said: “I enjoyed the whole thing, apart from my restart, I don’t know if you saw it, but I probably had to avoid a very big crash, just people coming across, probably not realising that people can be three abreast.
“So I avoided two extremely big crashes, which would have been very nasty. So a bit more self-awareness of some drivers would be great.”
[adrotate banner=”10″]
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.