Why F1’s Losing Norris—and Why He Should Go Back to Being the Class Clown

Lando Norris saw his title hopes slip further away as his Australian teammate Oscar Piastri won again, his third win in a row in only the sixth race of the season. It’s disappointing to those who picked him to win the WDC in 2025, but why is that? Well, read on.

Lando Norris Is Struggling Mentally This Season

After months of delay, the 2020 F1 season finally began at the Red Bull Ring. Late in the race, Hamilton, who’s running 3rd, got a five-second penalty because he’s secretly a robot designed to punt Albon whenever he’s in a podium position.

Running in 4th is Norris, who hears about this with two to go and is six seconds behind. The then second-year driver pulls the most clutch, the fastest lap of the decade so far, going from six seconds back to fout to get his first career podium. An amazing moment that should be talked about more, especially since I don’t think the Lando of 2025 could do this, so what happened?

Once F1’s Little Brother, Norris Has Grown Reserved

In 2019, his rookie year, he was the grid’s little brother—scrappy, energetic, and always making jokes. He gained a massive fanbase for his memes and was the 1st F1 driver to embrace streaming and social media as a way to connect with fans.

Many of his friends are endeared to him through his friendship with Sainz. McLaren back then was a midpack team that needed a few miracles to win, meaning all he had to worry about was giving the car the best possible result. Cut to 2021, and McLaren has become the best midpack team on the grid, after a few podiums, people are expecting his first win soon, and this is where we see a shift in his mentality.

Norris Is Underperforming On and Off the Track

In 2021 Norris said that he has “no sympathy” for Daniel Ricciardo during his struggles as his McLaren teammate in 2021. This was a turn in the way Norris presented himself; while he was usually brash, he was usually in a jovial and lighthearted spirit.

This was one of the first times he was ever at this point, and without fluff during the first season, expectations were raised for the young Brit. This started a pattern of saying things like, “Yeah, well, you had a quick car, you made the most of it, and now it’s us” to Hamilton and saying “simply lovely,” Max Verstappen’s catchphrase, after winning at Max’s home track.

Is This Version of Norris Really Authentic?

As I said before, he used to be the grid’s little brother, but he was always hyped up to be one of the future faces of F1, and after his amazing 2020 and 2021 he felt the pressure and so wanted more respect for the grid and from fans. So he began to try and live up to the image of an F1 world champion.

An ultraconfident, fearless, ultracompetitive, take-nothing-from-nobody, ultracool guy saying the kind of thing his peer Verstappen or Ayrton Senna would say. Like I’m saying, however, it’s nothing but an act he puts on, and that’s why whenever things go wrong, he retreats to being overly defensive and downplaying how fast his car is or saying how untalented he is in his post-race interviews.

Norris Seems Burdened by His Own Expectations

However, the number one reason he’s not is that he’s thinking so much about it he’s psyching himself out. Leading to mistake after mistake, which only furthers this cycle Lando has found himself in for a year now. The only solution is to let Lando be himself again.

I’m not saying he should go back to his 2019 self; obviously, he’s been through six years of life. You can’t go back to being the same person you once were. Yet from 2019 to about 2021, Lando was clearly more comfortable with himself, and while he was capable of errors, like in Russia in 2021. It was way less than in the last 2 seasons because he put a lot less pressure on himself. He has to learn the difference between internal and external pressure and stop putting more pressure on himself than he can handle.  The best way to do that is to go back to being the person he’s most comfortable being.

Norris Still Has World-Class Talent

I’ve heard a lot of people doubt or downplay his talent recently. Anyone capable of his one-lap pace and managing races as he did at Australia or last year at Zandvoort and Abu Dhabi, a race that clinched him 2nd in the points, shows that clutch 2020 Lando is in him somewhere, and whether it be the meme lord or a more authentic cockiness, what’s most important is I want to see Lando be happy with himself again.

Thanks a bunch for reading!