From birthing the legend of the ‘Last Lap Lando’ in the final lap of previous year’s season opening Austrian GP to actually coming mighty close at winning his maiden Formula 1 Grand Prix, Lando Norris has come a long distance. He’s been who he is- fast, funny, goofy off the grid but anything but that on the track.
He’s also set a record at being the fifth-youngest pole sitter ever in Formula 1 history. Besides that, he’s taken McLaren to a comeback trail where his contributions and consistency at the famous racing marquee shall always be looked at with respect and appreciation.
There was a time where in the 2020 F1 season all that young Lando Norris had bagged was a solitary podium, even as that translated at the back of a sterling effort at Spielberg, which was, lest it is forgotten, Norris’ first race of the season with the British team.
Today, he’s gone on to bag four more podiums that makes Bristol’s finest export to the world of Formula 1 racing a very special name.
Four of his podiums this year have meant that they are three more than what 2021 Monza winner Daniel Ricciardo has managed so far, having struggled for the better part of a season where McLaren are growing by leaps and bounds.
But if there’s something that Lando Norris isn’t quite liking and may want F1 to further improve on then it’s, believe it or not, the cars belonging to the forthcoming season.
You read that right.
The new season that’ll bring new rules and regulations from the FIA’s desk, all with an aim to make the sport more interesting, closely-fought and enduring feature, without much surprise, newer F1 machines.
Wider tyres, slower pit stops than what one sees now are just some of those measures.
But the cars and their changed aerodynamic functioning too form a key role with regards to what to expect from the blazingly fast mean racing machines that run riot on tracks around the world.
Yet, all of that said, what is it about the 2022 F1 championship cars that Lando Norris isn’t most impressed about? What, according to the soon-to-turn 22 driver isn’t all that fascinating?
Here is what Lando Norris himself confessed as per a report published on the venerable Motorsport.com racing platform. Have a look at it yourself:
It’s a very different car to drive. In a way not as nice as this season.
“But I think hopefully that’s the same case with every other team as well. And we’ll see, there’s no point trying to think it’s amazing or terrible.
“You just have to do the best job you can and hopefully, next season, we go to the pre-season test with a good car.”
But the driver responsible for a fine McLaren 1-2 with Ricciardo on the top step shared some more interesting insights and therefore, it’s important to take cognisance of this:
“The only car we’ve seen is the one at Silverstone. The car we have in the factory, it’s not even a car. It’s a drawing and some paper. I don’t think we will see it for many more months, maybe not until next year in a way. We’ve seen some of the drawings and the designs for next season, but every week, it’s something new and something different, because there’s so many different things with the car. But every week it’s very easy to make changes and make it quicker and quicker,” concluded the smily avid youngster.
What do you reckon; is Lando making sense here?