Lando Norris said he was “nowhere near” his best in a surprising assessment of his F1 2025 season so far.

The McLaren driver leads the World Drivers’ Championship but said he has found it tough to click into gear so far this year.

Lando Norris makes surprising confession over F1 2025 form

Norris endured his most difficult race of the year so far in Bahrain when a P6 quali spot was followed by a false start breach and an eventual P3, all while Oscar Piastri raced away to the most dominant victory of the season.

The 25-year-old, who is known to be on the more pessimistic side, launched into a debate about his own season, highlighting that something was “just not clicking” for him.

“I wish I knew. I wish I knew the answer,” he said when asked why he was so despondent after qualifying. “I don’t have an answer, honestly. Even if I did, I wouldn’t share it with you guys.

“I don’t know. I think when you’re an athlete, when you’re a driver, whatever it is – you just know when things click, when you feel confident, when you feel comfortable.

“I’m confident that I have everything I need and I’ve got what it takes. I have no doubt about that – that I’m good enough, and all of those things. But something’s just not clicking with me and the car. I’m not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season.

“Then, I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car – how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year, I could not have felt more opposite so far.

“Even in Australia, whether or not I won the race, I never felt comfortable, never felt confident. The car was just mega and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute. But I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have – which hurts to say. I spent a lot of time, even last night.

“I left late last night to look into everything and understand what I’m struggling with, what’s not clicking. Trying to figure out what’s changed from last year to this year. Is it me? Is it some of the car? It’s complicated.

“But I’m not doubting myself, even though sometimes it may seem like that. It’s just something’s not gelling, something’s not clicking, and therefore I just don’t feel comfortable when I’m in the car. I’m confident – like I know I’ve got what it takes – but just not confident.

“And when you’re not confident in the car, to know what the limit is, what to do in the slow speed, high speed, any corner – I’m never going to be as quick as I need to be. And especially when you’re fighting the best in the world. As soon as you’re not settled, then it’s going to be an issue – and that’s what happening now.”

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Norris was also asked for the positives he could take from the race and his reply was: “That it’s finished.”

To make matters worse, Norris’ team-mate Piastri reported no similar issues with the car after he finished 15.499 seconds clear of the field even with a safety car.

“This weekend I felt comfortable with it,” the Australian said. “I think there have been times where it’s been tricky, definitely. But I would say for the most part, I’ve been pretty happy with the car, to be honest.

“Clearly it’s got a lot of pace. We’ve kind of known from pre-season testing that there’s some things that we wanted to iron out, but I think we’ve done a very good job of doing that. And yeah, I think for myself, I’ve been comfortable – especially this weekend – in what the car’s been able to do. And I think the team’s been doing a great job.”

Read next: Bahrain GP driver ratings: Perfection for Piastri and messy mistakes for Norris