F1 | Abu Dhabi GP | Norris not worried about Hamilton and Verstappen: “I can do what I need to do”
Lando Norris will start tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi GP from third place, behind only title protagonists Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. But the McLaren driver isn’t worried about the prospect racing directly with the championship contenders.
Norris put in a fantastic final lap in Q3 to grab third place, ahead of the likes of Valtteri Bottas, in the Mercedes, and Sergio Perez, in the Red Bull. The Briton is fighting with Charles Leclerc for P5 in the drivers’ championship, with just 4 points separating the two, in favour of the Monegasque. But he is well aware that there is an even bigger fight set to unfold just ahead of him, with the front row consisting of fierce title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
Speaking to selected media outlets, including MotorLAT, in a virtual media session after qualifying, Norris expressed his feelings about the potential for drama on lap 1 if he gets involved in a fight with the top two:
“That’s fine. I think I have the confidence in myself that I can do what I need to do, without causing any controversy or something bad going on. That’s part of their racing too. It’s not been an easy championship, but I’m sure there have been much bigger hurdles for them over the season than just trying to pass me, in a McLaren.
“Of course, we need to pick our battles wisely, but I know I’m racing Ferrari, realistically. But in doing so, I can gain track position, and [if] I do get involved, trying to get them at start and so on, I’ll do that. I just need to know that I’m not racing them for the long term of the race, and they have their battle. I guess you have to leave maybe a bit more room, and have a bit more space, because maybe they’re in a battle for the championship, the last thing I want is for anything to happen,” he pondered.
His team boss, Andreas Seidl, had his say on what should be the approach for Norris in the race, stating that he needs to do “the same as you always do” otherwise it gets “dangerous”:
“Whenever you are in such situations, the most important thing is to just do the same as you always do, because if you try to be too cautious for example going into the first few corners, or you to orchestrate something, you take this intuitive feeling the drivers are having, or the experience that they’re having, and these intuitive reactions away from them, and then it’s also quite dangerous.
“In the end, the objective is clear for tomorrow: we want to score a good result for us as a team, and we want to get back in P5 for the drivers’ championship with Lando, and to do that we need a good result, and that’s how we approach it.”
Asked about his lap, Norris said he was “very happy” with it, highlighting a “clean lap” was the key for his success, when other drivers potentially didn’t fully hook up their laps:
“I think there was only one mistake, really, through the whole lap, which was out of the final corner. Just trying to get across the line as soon as possible. The rest of the lap, I was very happy with.
“Yeah baby, yahooo!” 😁 @LandoNorris#AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 pic.twitter.com/d4uQGdHRvL
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) December 11, 2021
“One thing that can make a lap is just how clean it was. Apart from the last corner, like I said, it was just a very clean lap. I always hit the right apexes, my braking points were on point, and everything like that. It was just a very honest and clean lap, as well as being quick.
“A lot of people out there just made some mistakes here and there which maybe cost - three hundredths, four hundredths, whatever it could be, could be very small – I don’t feel like I did that, I got it all together, and that’s what made it.”
Looking ahead to the race, the Briton laments the fact that he has to start on the soft tyres he qualified on in Q2, being aware that an early advantage with the softer rubber on the first few laps will fade away quickly, highlighting how his excellent qualifying result might actually compromise his race:
“I’m probably going to have a very small advantage on Lewis [Hamilton] off the start, Max [Verstappen] is also on the soft [tyre] I think, expecting to get a better start than what Lewis should. But the soft is still a decent tyre. In terms of going long – and ideally the preference is to be on the medium, Max wanted to be on the medium, we wanted to be on the medium - we just didn’t have the pace to do so and to get to Q3.
“But there’s obviously the advantage of the start, the first lap. Maybe we’re disadvantaged, we were expecting maybe 6th or 7th or 5th, and then you go forwards from there, rather than being P3 and not being able to use the advantage of the soft tyre. We kind of dug ourselves in a little bit, by having such a good result.”
— Lando Norris (@LandoNorris) December 11, 2021
