Lando Norris admits he’s ‘paid the price’ after taking a backwards step in key area compared to the 2024 F1 season

This time last season, McLaren driver Lando Norris would have been delighted to be sitting 10 points off the top of the drivers’ championship.

The Miami Grand Prix was where Lando Norris won his first Formula 1 race, but a lot has changed in the past 12 months.

McLaren put together a fantastic campaign to win their first constructors’ championship since 1998, and both Norris and Oscar Piastri are now established race winners.

Both drivers now have five Formula 1 victories to their name, but the Australian appears to have an edge over his more experienced teammate.

The margins are incredibly small this year, with the grid converging to the point where pole position is regularly being decided by a few hundredths of a second.

Norris made a crucial mistake in qualifying in Saudi Arabia, and while he did well to recover to fourth after starting P10, even his performance in the race wasn’t perfect.

Piastri benefitted from Norris struggling to get past Lewis Hamilton by overtaking the Ferrari driver at a different point of the track, as the seven-time world champion kept re-passing his fellow Brit on the main straight.

Those fine margins could make all the difference this season, as Norris admits he’s struggling in one area where he was performing much better in 2024.

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McLaren star Lando Norris not as ‘precise’ as he was at the end of last season

Norris was being interviewed by The Race ahead of the next race in Miami about his start to the season.

When asked about the extremely tight battle at the top of the drivers’ championship, he explained, “You can’t afford to leave one hundredth, two hundredths, three hundredths on the table, so, you’re having to push it to that limit.

“And when you want to be able to push it to that limit, you’ve got to feel it every step of the way.

“You’ve got to feel you’re on the limit of the braking, the turn-in phase, the cornering phase and the exit.

“And as soon as you have a little bit of a mismatch, and things aren’t reacting as you think they should when you’re not about to predict the understeer or predict the oversteer, you’re having to think.

“And as soon as you’re having to consciously think, you’re losing hundredths of a second or thousandths of a second, and that’s just enough to make me happy or not happy.

“The harder it gets the more precision you need, the more precision you need, the more feel [you need] and that’s an area where I felt like I was very good at the end of last season and really understood.

“I’m not able to be as on it as I was at the end of last year and therefore I paid the price, either with some bigger mistakes, or some lock-ups, or different things.

“I’m not as precise as what I need to be and that’s costing me.”

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Lando Norris might have one advantage over Oscar Piastri in the McLaren title fight

Norris has been much more honest than many of his Formula 1 rivals when it comes to his struggles with the car.

Even though many of the other drivers on the grid believe McLaren have the fastest car, Norris hasn’t hidden that he’s not finding it easy to extract its potential.

Piastri has established a different response to Norris when it comes to what he’s saying about McLaren’s 2025 car publicly.

However, McLaren believe Norris’ advantage over Piastri will pay off in one area that could end up benefitting him in the long run.

The British driver will have to hope that turnaround happens soon before Piastri opens up a clear lead in the drivers’ championship.