For a Formula 1 driver so highly rated by his own team and respected by his peers, Lando Norris is so self-deprecating that he would probably argue against himself being ranked so highly on this list.
After an outstanding season in 2022 where Norris had been in a tier of his own, so far ahead of his fellow midfield rivals but too far behind the leading teams to challenge them, the McLaren driver was desperate to get closer to the fight at the front in 2023.
Which is why it was so frustrating for him and McLaren that they emerged from the pre-season as a
team in crisis. McLaren CEO Zak Brown openly admitted the team’s new MCL60 had missed major development targets and that its aerodynamic performance was “not where we would like it to be”. Norris and rookie team mate Oscar Piastri were struggling to get out of Q1, let alone fighting for points.
But despite expecting a big struggle at the start of the season, Norris managed to somehow drag his car into Q2 and into an unexpected 11th place at the opening qualifying of the season in Bahrain. But then in the grand prix, a pneumatic leak destroyed his race, forcing him to pit six times to constantly top up fluid as his first Sunday of the season turned into little more than a test session. The following round in Saudi Arabia was little better. He was knocked out of Q1 in 19th after breaking his car’s steering arm in a brush with the wall, then suffered damage from debris on the opening lap which compromised his evening and left him running towards the back.
After a miserable start to the season, Norris and McLaren sat at the very bottom of the championship. A long, difficult season appeared to lie ahead, but the next round in Australia transformed McLaren’s fortunes. Norris qualified 13th but found himself running inside the top 10 for most of the race and gained two positions when the Alpine pair crashed in the final restart, claiming an unexpected but not undeserved top six finish.
Another points haul followed in Baku where he took the ‘best of the rest’ grid slot of seventh in Friday’s qualifying session, then finished in ninth – again, the highest-placed driver behind the Red Bulls, Ferraris, Aston Martins and Mercedes. The McLaren struggled in Miami with both Norris and Piastri eliminated from Q1, but a knock from Nyck de Vries at the start of the race caused damage that cost Norris around three tenths of a second per lap,…
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