Although McLaren's MCL39 has demonstrated an early advantage in 2025's F1 season, Lando Norris feels that the papaya machine still does not suit his driving style. That said, the Briton has admitted to a change in his own approach, in that he is less worried if a car suits him and more worried about performance.
Norris says that he has given up on the idea of trying to influence the engineers to build a car that plays to his own strengths as a driver, and instead has put the onus on himself to adapt to what McLaren believes is needed to find performance.
Speaking ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, Norris explained that he would prefer to employ an "attacking" style and likes to be on the front foot with late braking and opening up the corner entries.
In reality, the McLaren seems to get more out of being almost passive into the corners, with excellent traction meaning that the exits can be prioritised for lap time. In our pole-lap analysis from Albert Park, we noted that one of the key differences between Norris and Oscar Piastri was that the more experienced driver was taking less risk with braking zones, and focusing on selecting the right time to drop the throttle mid-corner.
Piastri, by comparison, was willing to play a little bit more with the corner entry - but the immediate advantage in lap delta from carrying more speed into the corner did not last for much longer beyond the corner exit.
"I've got to a point where I've just accepted that you can't have really a car that suits your driving," Norris explained. "I stopped maybe asking so much for exactly what I want and more just willing to do whatever makes the car quicker. You know, it is probably a tricky car to drive and to put together laps. But clearly, it's taken a step forward to last year.
"But then it's my job to drive whatever car I get given in the end of the day. That's why I'm here. It's why McLaren wanted me because they believe I can drive it in a better way than others can.
"It's similar characteristics [to last year's car], and some of those characteristics I don't like and do not suit the way I want to drive in an attacking way. It doesn't suit me in terms of me wanting to push the entries and push the braking.
"It's very weak, I would say, from that point of view. So not what I like, but at the same time, some of it is down to the adaptation of needing to change a little bit my driving styles every year. The car I drive this year is very different to what a McLaren was a few years ago, clearly, because we were at the back and now we're at the front.
"But I think it's unique in certain aspects and obviously, we have our strengths and weaknesses. And whenever someone has been at McLaren and gone to another team, they've often said how hard or odd McLaren has been to drive, whether it was Daniel [Ricciardo] or it was Carlos [Sainz].
"It's all I'm used to. But I'll just drive whatever car I have to drive as long as it's fighting for a win and quick enough to fight for a win, then I'm happy to just drive what I get given."
Norris spoke about balance, when asked about his decision to stop asking for elements in a car's design that would suit his driving.
For example, he noted the compromises needed to dial in any additional front-end load; to get the car to feel more natural to him would currently come with the penalty of losing performance.
"I think the thing is, the aero guys and girls back in the factory, they just try and find lap time and you've got to balance how you work the car. At times you can try and find a more peaky car. So if it works at the peak, it's better, but it might be trickier to drive and worse in windy conditions those kind of things," he explained.
"Or do you try and get rid of some of that peak grip and just make it a slightly more all-rounded car? And you've got to play with this balance, because it's easy.
"It's difficult to get both, and you've got to choose what direction you want. I definitely think some of what I want from a car, first of all, it's just very hard to get. That's probably the best answer for it is just to have, for me, a good front at apex.
"That's kind of all I feel like I want, but I very rarely ever have what I need from the car from that perspective. The car can still win races. It's not like if I don't have what I need, it's bad. I can still get the most out of the car if I don't have what I want. But there's just compromises.
"If I do want a bit more front end at mid-corner, at the minute, we can only get that if we compromise low speed or high speed performance or windy condition. There's just so many compromises you've got to make. At the end of the day, you just want the best all-rounded car."
Norris feels that having to put his own interests to one side and focus on getting the most out of the package McLaren provides has actually given him a lot more insight and clarity of thought into the actual process of driving in F1. And that's sometimes what an athlete needs: to be taken completely out of their comfort zone to view the other side of the coin.
Some might view the idea of driving styles as a myth, and that drivers should be ready to adapt to whatever comes their way. This is true to a certain degree, in that pragmatism reigns over idealism, but some drivers are naturally predisposed to a certain way of operating. To be a truly complete driver, one also needs to be strong in uncomfortable conditions.
Additional reporting by Ronald Vording.
