Lando Norris gets honest about the impact of criticism during F1 title fight against Max Verstappen

Lando Norris has opened up on the impact of the criticism he faced during the F1 title fight against Max Verstappen last season. He found himself in a situation that he did not expect to be, as the team's Miami upgrade leapfrogged the car to the front of the grid.

The 2024 F1 season began the same way as the 2023 season ended. Red Bull and Max Verstappen resumed winning races dominantly. Things took a sudden turn when McLaren's Miami upgrade helped the car close the gap to the front.

As a result, Norris won his first career F1 race in Miami and became a permanent fixture at the front of the grid. While this happened, Red Bull and Verstappen's struggles continued to exacerbate as the team struggled to extract the most from their cars.

After Miami, McLaren contested at the sharp end of the grid more often than not while Red Bull continued to regress. Lando Norris, however, was unable to make the most of it and hence was the target of a lot of criticism. Talking about the 2024 F1 season on the Fast and the Curios podcast, Norris said that the criticism did have an impact on him.

“People don’t call it conspiracy theories now, they just call it ‘their facts’. ‘My personal facts’. That’s not how it works. That’s not the definition of ‘the facts’. Again, you learn how to deal with these things, and that’s something I probably was affected by a lot more before. I think last year, I was. You’ve just got to live with it and roll with it, the fact that people are criticising you or supporting you."

He added:

“Of course, you always are much happier about those supporters. But I know I’m going to get criticized. I criticize myself all the time. I want my team to criticize me. And the thing I probably almost hate the most in the world is people who try to make me feel good and do it in the wrong way. I prefer the criticism than a ‘fake’ happiness.”

Lando Norris on the pressure to win the championship this season

Looking ahead to the 2025 F1 season, Lando Norris admitted that there certainly was pressure on the team because first time, McLaren would be expected to start the season well. The last two seasons have seen the Woking-based squad bring an underdeveloped car and rely heavily on the first upgrade.

This time around, however, that's not the case, and hence expectations are high. Talking about the pressure of being champions, Norris said:

“We have not started the season well, ever. This year is the first one we’re coming in like ‘we’ve done it now’, now there is pressure and there’s the expectation of ‘you’ve done it and now you have to start it’ [the way you finished it]. That’s our target, but it’s difficult. Everyone’s trying to improve and make as many changes and everything as possible. But I think we are confident we’ve figured out a lot of stuff and we definitely want to start how we ended.”

Lando Norris finished second in the championship behind Max Verstappen. He would be hoping to go one better this time around in 2025.