Lando Norris, Andreas Seidl, McLaren, Yas Marina, 2022

Norris dissatisfied with solitary podium finish: “One isn’t enough”

2022 F1 season

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McLaren’s Lando Norris says scoring a single podium in 2022 “isn’t enough” for himself or the team.

Despite taking home his second highest points haul from a season in his Formula 1 career, and his second highest championship position, by finishing seventh, Norris could not match his achievements of the last two years, including four podiums and a second place in a McLaren team win in 2021.

Norris only finished in the top five in three grands prix out of 22 but took third place at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Asked if being the only driver outside of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes to score a podium meant anything to him, Norris said “a little bit”.

“A podium always means something,” Norris said. “It means something to me, it means something to the team, but one isn’t enough.

“One is like ‘we got lucky’ – you want to feel like you deserve to be there every time. We deserve to be there for sure, [but] we weren’t quick enough to be there. We were kind of way ahead of where we deserved to be.

“One time isn’t enough for me. It’s not a good enough job by the whole team and again, all of that is down to the car we’ve had. So everyone’s working hard now, everyone knows that, it’s not like it’s a new thing.”

Norris scored over three times as many points as team mate Daniel Ricciardo, who only finished in the top five once all season. Norris ended the year with sixth place and the fastest lap at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“We know we’ve had a very tough season, we found it difficult, we’ve been quite up and down,” he said. “We’ve had a weekend like here where we’ve been quick and then we were in Brazil, which is one of our worst weekends of the whole season.

“So we’ve had one of the biggest lows and then maybe one of the best highs of the year in the final two weekends. A lot of understanding [needed] still for us, a lot of learning, we need to take a step next year.”

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Author information

Ida Wood
Often found in junior single-seater paddocks around Europe doing journalism and television commentary, or dabbling in teaching photography back in the UK. Currently based...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

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16 comments on “Norris dissatisfied with solitary podium finish: “One isn’t enough””

  1. Sounds a bit like Lando starting to get impatient, something like “give me a better car or I’ll look elsewhere”.
    The new car spec really screwed McLaren, they had been on an upward trajectory since splitting with Honda. They’ve got to make a leap next year indeed, otherwise I see them getting stuck in P4-P5 in the constructors until the next rules overhaul, which they might get wrong again. Wonder when their new facilities will start paying dividends.

    1. It’s understandable though (getting impatient), realistically in the last “few” years:
      1) Only mercedes and red bull have been able to bring good enough cars to fight all the way for title in the last 12 years
      2) Only them and ferrari have been able to pretty consistently bring a car able to fight for wins
      3) Mclaren isn’t a top team since 10 years
      4) Williams isn’t a top team since 18 years, let’s be generous
      5) “Renault” isn’t a top team since 16 years
      6) “Sauber” won at least a race around 10 years ago but were never a front runner, “force india” were never a front runner, haas also never were, and same goes for “toro rosso”

      It’s really hard to put faith into anyone but red bull and mercedes to fight for the championship seriously and anyone but them and ferrari to even fight for wins any given year coming.

      1. And you really can’t count on Mercedes either. Without Brawn, it’s far from certain Mercedes will ever get there again. Most people forget that it was Brawn who designed and developed the Mercedes into a world beater. Toto and co. just inherited his work. So, unlike Newey who has proven he can adapt to every generation, MB does not have that track record.

        It also shows how important a natural design genius still is in F1 even with the march of technology. Adrian Newey should be paid a lot more than the best drivers in F1 (and maybe via equity and salary he gets comparable compensation).

        1. Bull. Mercedes had a world-class team of designers that built on the foundation Ross put in place. I suppose Ross Brawn secretly redesigned the car for the major aero change in 2017 too?

          Anyone seeing the progress Mercedes made with the W13 from the start of the season to Brazil, given the limitations of wind tunnel / CFD they had, who thinks that they can’t design a race winning car is seriously deceiving themselves.

        2. Nick, can I quibble and say Ross Brawn didn’t design cars. It is true that he was an engineer by training, and was team principal of the Brawn team which was utterly dominant for half a season, but saying Brawn designed the car is a bit like saying Christian Horner designed this year’s Red Bull. The Brawn was actually the work of designer Loic Bigois, who worked his way through various aerodynamiccs roles at Ligier, Prost, Minardi, and Williams before moving to Honda, which became Brawn. In that year he won the motorsports aerodynamicist of the year award. At the end of that year he moved to Ferrari where I believe he is still the senior aero guy. It is true that Mercedes inherited his work, but once other teams had caught up with the double diffuser, the Brawn honestly wasn’t anything special. The unsung hero and chief designer of championship winning Mercedes designs is John Owen, and those designs are a world away from the Brawn design.

      2. Force India were Jordan, who were definitely front runners at a stage.

  2. He is a nice enough chap, but (in F1) , a non-winner like the car.
    Two genuine chances recently and blew HIS chances on both occasions.
    Suppose someone will gamble on him if he leaves ,but I’d be wanting someone who takes their chances when they present themselves.
    They may not come around that often.

    1. No blame in russia, hamilton was fighting for the championship, was happy to pit and settle for a 2nd place, norris was going for his first win, he had to risk, if by any chance he pitted and hamilton didn’t and the weather had improved he’d have thrown away the win, at least he tried and didn’t make any mistake he could avoid with good driving, the weather simply turned into full wet and he was on slicks.

      1. He was like a petulant child whining and refusing when he was told to box in Russia – he was out of control emotionally.
        His father got him a seat – he needs to handle Piastri decisively next season or he will be under pressure big time.
        Dan made him look better than he is possibly – we shall soon find out.

        1. That ‘petulant child’ shows more maturity than you though … read between the lines.

    2. Norris is ridiculously fast over one lap. But he’s a bit young still, and McLaren has been inconsistent.

  3. I’d put a bet on Lando replacing Lewis at Mercedes for 2026.

    1. I agree. That’s a long time from now though. The team might not even be Mercedes five years from now.

  4. That Sochi tyre choice still haunts me almost as much as it probably does him from time to time.

  5. It’s a disgrace that McLaren are not challenging for podiums and wins by now. They have everything in place, the facilities, the talent, the driver… there are simply no more excuses available!

  6. It’s hard to understate the degree to which McLaren has missed the mark relative to their facilities, partnerships and history in the sport. And they’ve done so for over a decade now. The team gets a lot of free passes by being British and having ‘jolly’ drivers, but they haven’t even been close to being in serious contention for so long that it’s hard to see reason to expect this to change. Hopefully it does, because a team with the heritage of McLaren should be at the front of the grid.

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