Lando Norris: I’m proud of our team

At the beginning of the year, Lando Norris did not yet think that the season would be successful, but in the end he was satisfied…

Lando Norris: “The start of the season was difficult, I thought it would be like this all year long. We had no idea how much we could improve, especially in the beginning.

Of course we said, “We will be patient, because we are preparing good solutions.” But in recent years, good decisions have sometimes not given us any speed gains. This year it turned out to be the other way around: we added even more than we expected.

But it wasn’t easy. You never want to start the season thinking, “There are 23 races left and I can’t even get out of the first part of qualifying.” Then it seemed that the year would be very long for us.

However, we tried to get the best out of the failed car, which prepared us very well for the moment when it gained speed.

I think we were one of the best teams outside of Vegas when it came to maximizing points per weekend and reliability. Yes, the car still had no speed, but everything else went fine for us.

If you have a fast car, you use all its capabilities, and if you have a slow car, you try to get the most out of what you have. This meant we were well prepared. I am very proud of our team, we have been able to turn the situation around.

In Brazil I had a very good race in terms of lead over the rest, only losing to one of the fastest cars. Everything went well in Mexico too. If at the beginning of the year I tried to adapt to a difficult car, at the end I adapted and it was running. In the second half of the season I had a lot more self-confidence, especially in the races there was the feeling that I was getting the most out of the car.”