Christijan Albers has called out Lando Norris’ attitude during his interviews in Bahrain, telling the driver it makes him come across as “not as mentally strong” as his rivals.

Norris was unable to take the fight to his team-mate Oscar Piastri in qualifying at the Sakhir circuit, completing Q3 four-tenths down on his team-mate despite the MCL39’s superior speed.

Lando Norris: Weak or honest?

Declaring he was “just not quick enough”, the Briton gave a blunt but dejected reply when asked what happened on his final lap in Q3.

“I mean, it was just every lap, honestly,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “I’ve been off every lap this weekend, just not comfortable.

“And then no big complaints. The car is amazing. The car is as good as it has been the whole season, which is strong. Just, I’ve been off it all weekend.

“Don’t know why. Just clueless on track at the minute. So, I don’t know. I just need a big reset that’s all.”

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Somewhat concerningly, the championship leader added: “I just don’t know how to approach it. I can’t figure it out.

“Every time I try something, it’s good for one session, and then it’s the wrong thing for the next session, because the winds change. I just can’t flow with the car. And when I can’t flow, I’m just not very quick.”

But while Norris’ response to the media could be seen as the Briton being brutally honest, Albers believes it showed weakness.

“What I notice, he doesn’t feel like it, I can understand that,” Albers told Viaplay. “And then you have to give a nice interview.

“You can see from his attitude that he is not as mentally strong as others. That strikes me very much so.”

His fellow pundit Giedo van der Garde agrees that Norris needs to be more upbeat, even on the difficult days.

“You can just say, ‘Listen, I made a mistake, I wasn’t quite there on top of it today. I should normally be third. The team is doing well and I look forward to tomorrow’” van der Garde replied.

“This is completely downbeat, there is no confidence anymore.

“In Japan he did it, he has it in him and he is good enough. Sometimes it is that mentally it is not right with him in one way or another. He doesn’t know completely what he is doing.

“Then you have to say, ‘The beech underneath, we are going to get everything out of it and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’.

“Tomorrow is a completely different story.”

But, the former F1 driver added, “He sees his team-mate on and that hurts.”

As for Norris’ “tomorrow” in Bahrain, he fought back from his P6 start position to finish the Grand Prix on the podium in third place and held onto the lead in the Drivers’ standings where he is three points up on Piastri.

Norris team principal Andrea Stella has a different opinion of the Briton’s post-qualifying interviews, as he feels it speaks to Norris’ personality.

“As you say, Lando is often quite self-critical and transparent in a way, which is a stylistic aspect,” the Italian team boss told the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“There are, I’m sure, drivers which are equally self-critical, but they keep it for themselves, and they put a little bit of a screen between them and the rest of the world. Lando doesn’t have this characteristic.

“He’s very naturally honest, I would say, and therefore, he becomes visible when he’s disappointed or when he’s self-questioning.”

He believes the onus is on McLaren to support the driver through his Q3 troubles.

He went on to say: “Lando is a very fast driver, a naturally fast driver with incredible race-craft, and even now that he’s been struggling to put together laps in Q3, actually during the weekend it shows this speed.

“So it’s more a phase, I think, when it comes to Q3 and putting together a lap that hasn’t worked very well recently. But this is a short phase.

“My approach is to first of all, look in the mirror, the team should look in the mirror and say, ‘What should we do better to make Lando more comfortable and put him in a position to use his incredible talent?’

“When you have to deal with drivers and team members, conversations and dialogue, it is always the most powerful tool, and the one on which we lean constantly.”

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