Last Sunday night Lando Norris was dressed in a tuxedo, attending the annual Prince’s Ball as the winner of the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.
While this year’s F1 schedule requires the McLaren driver to quickly turn the page, as he is in Barcelona for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, he spent some time on Thursday looking back at his win in F1’s crown jewel, calling it a victory he will “remember forever.”
“I mean, it’s special for different reasons,” began Norris in the FIA Press Conference on Thursday. “Was it probably the hardest-fought race? Probably not, but that’s Monaco.
Is it the one that means the most? The one with the most pressure on a Saturday? The one everyone wants to win? Then yes,” continued Norris. “It’s more just the meaning behind it—the history behind the week itself, the racetrack, the people who have won there. The prestigiousness of where it is and what kind of event it is. So is it the one I’m probably most proud of? I would say so. One that I’ll remember forever. I think it’s everything everyone talks it up to be and more. Because it’s something that you’re proud to say, it’s not just any win in Formula 1. It’s the one. So pretty cool,” added the McLaren driver.
In the moments after Norris captured pole position on Saturday, he highlighted taking P1 during arguably the most important qualifying session of the season as a tremendous step forward for him. Norris revisited that theme when speaking with the media on Thursday in Barcelona.
“I’ve made it clear on where my struggles have been. The things I’ve found a little more difficult, especially this season compared to previous ones,” started Norris. “Saturdays have had a lot more ups and downs. My Sundays—95% of the races this season—I’ve been pretty happy with. Of course, there are still some races that haven’t gone perfectly. If I look back on Miami and things like that, if I could redo things, of course, I would do some things differently, but some things just go the way they do. My Sundays I’ve been very happy with. I’m always very confident going into Sundays, and I’ve been this whole season.
“So yeah, it’s just tweaking little things, and that’s more just the position that I start the race. That’s been the biggest thing. Like I said before, Monaco is the area I’ve been working on the most. It’s the one I’m putting the most time and effort into because it’s the one that allows me to win races or not.”
There have been several weeks this season where Norris appeared a prohibitive favorite to take pole position given his performance in practice, only to see P1 slip away from him on Saturday. At the Japanese Grand Prix, for example, Norris was fastest in both FP1 and FP3, but Max Verstappen pipped him for pole position in Suzuka. At the Bahrain Grand Prix Norris was again either P1 or P2 during each of the three practice sessions, but only qualified sixth. In Saudi Arabia, Norris was P1 in both FP2 and FP3, but an incident in Q3 left Norris in the wall, and on the grid in P10.
Last week in Monaco, however, he was dominant in practice and backed that up with a new track record to secure pole position.
“I said probably in every interview I did there that it did. I was happier with my pole on Saturday than I was with my win on Sunday because everyone knows Saturday is the day you’ve got to show up and do your job,” described Norris on Thursday in Barcelona.
‘And of course, in the most tricky track of the season, under the most pressure, the most tense, the session where the most stuff can go wrong, with the biggest consequences—it was probably my best qualifying performance of the whole season,” continued Norris. “So, I definitely think it gave me a boost.”
The McLaren driver added that the improvement he showed Saturday in Monaco remains a “process.”
“But it’s not like I come into here feeling better than ever. There are still plenty of things I’m working on, things I know I need to do better on and try to improve. But that’s not just a one-week or two-week thing. It takes time, and I’m patient with that. I’m trying to work as quickly as I can. But sometimes it’s a longer and more difficult process,” continued Norris. “That’s what it is sometimes when you’re against the best guys in the world. So I don’t expect different. But yeah, a lot of good things came out of Monaco.”
Beyond Norris’ win in Monaco, another major talking point ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix also concerns the driver, and his team. This week the sport’s governing body is rolling out a new Technical Directive, instituting stricter testing on front wings. Some in the paddock believe this rule change could alter the pecking order, and pull McLaren’s rivals closer to them at the front of the grid.
Norris, however, dismissed that speculation on Thursday. Asked by Tom Clarkson during the FIA Press Conference if he was “concerned” the change would impact McLaren, he offered a simple answer.
“Nope. Not at all.”
We’ll find out for sure this weekend.
