Lando Norris has made it clear that his confidence heading into Formula 1’s second half is not resting solely on McLaren’s latest performance gains.
For the reigning World Champion, the biggest source of belief is much closer to home: the people surrounding him at the Woking-based team.
McLaren head to this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix with renewed optimism after Norris converted an encouraging step forward at the Hungaroring into victory.
The result provided a welcome boost following a difficult opening phase to the campaign, but the Briton knows one win does not automatically make McLaren the benchmark everywhere.
Budapest provided a promising clue
Norris is particularly keen to discover whether the gains delivered by McLaren’s new floor in Hungary can be carried across different circuits and conditions.
“I'm never the guy who gets too far ahead of myself, so I'm not going to come in here thinking that we should just win the race again,” he explained during Thursday’s media day at the Dutch Grand Prix.
“But our goals are set high, so we want to believe we can. I think, with the new parts we had, with the new floor we had in Budapest, we just need to understand if it's just brought performance everywhere, every track, every type of surface, all types of corners, whether it was more specific to there.
“So, I think we're still patient with understanding how much performance that really brought us. But it was clear we took a step forward and that's a good sign. We still want to believe we can be very competitive here.”
More of the same in Zandvoort?
Zandvoort will provide an immediate examination of those improvements, with cooler temperatures and different wind conditions potentially altering the competitive picture.
“In some ways it's not too different [here] to Budapest, but it's also different in different ways: with the wind conditions, obviously much colder, so we have to just wait and see.
“I think it was clear what the weaknesses are of the car, what was better with the car, but the performance we had on Sunday especially, was probably almost a better performance than we had at any point last year.
"So I think it still shows that we can kind of ebb and flow, and still be a little bit more inconsistent than we were at times last season.
“We're still trying to understand everything perfectly with the car. But it's a track that I've enjoyed, I've always liked, and we performed well here as a team in the past. I'm hoping this weekend is the same again.”
The biggest factor fueling confidence
Yet while the technical picture remains a work in progress, Norris sounded considerably less uncertain when asked what ultimately gives him confidence that McLaren can take the fight to Mercedes and Ferrari over the remainder of the season.
His answer was emphatic.
“What are the factors? McLaren is the team I'm with. That's the biggest factor,” the World Champion responded.
“The people we have, what we've achieved over the last few years and the leadership we have within the team, from, I guess, part of it from myself, but also from Andrea [Stella], from Zak [Brown], the team leaders within McLaren.
“Just everyone's in a very, very good mindset at the minute, and in the mindset you need and you have to have to fight against the best in the world, in terms of all the teams and drivers, and to fight for World Championships.
“So, my team give me plenty of reassurance. And also, if I drive as well as I did in Budapest, and I have done for a lot of this season, then I'm very confident in myself too.”
Read also: McLaren unleash another MCL40 upgrade blitz at Dutch GPThat combination of an improving car, a united leadership structure and Norris’ own belief could prove a potent formula as the championship battle enters its decisive stretch.
McLaren may still have questions to answer, but after Budapest, Norris clearly sees plenty of reasons to like the answers that are beginning to emerge.
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