Lando Norris admits he’s at a loss to understand why he has been less competitive in qualifying this year.
He out-qualified his team mate in 20 out of 24 rounds last year. But following the first seven rounds this year, Norris is trailing 4-3 against Oscar Piastri.
Despite qualifying fourth at Imola, Norris finished ahead of Piastri, who started from pole position. But Norris said he needs to concentrate on where he is missing out in qualifying.
“I just know that I can do more,” he told Channel 4. “Until I’m delivering my potential every weekend then I’m not going to be over the moon.
“I’m confident, I know what I can achieve, I know that I’ve got the speed, I’m not worried about any of that. I’m just worried about delivering it when it needs to be delivered. And that’s on Saturdays at the minute.”
Norris has never lost a qualifying battle to a team mate over a season in F1. “Over the past few years, Saturdays have been mine,” he acknowledged. “They’ve been my strength for many, many years.
“This year, with the car changing a little bit, with the tyres changing, for some reason it’s drifted away from me. I’ve got to work it out – and it’s taken time and it’ll take more time – why it’s a little bit more tricky for me to get the lap time out of it and why it’s just not clicking and why I’m just not seeing green [sectors] as often.”
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He took some consolation from his recovery to second place in the last two rounds. “Some difficulties, some things are not easy at the minute. But when you have a Sunday like [Imola], when you have Sundays like Miami and things where you can come back through and you show that you’ve got good pace, they’re always reassuring.
“So I’m not worried about my speed. I’m just taking a bit of time to understand why my Saturdays are not coming through.”
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