Lando Norris identifies key cause of ‘silly mistakes’ with F1 2024 title charge stalling

Lando Norris says he has been “paying the price” for “probably trying a bit too hard” over recent races as he enters the F1 2024 summer break 78 points behind World Championship leader Max Verstappen.

Norris finds himself P2 in the Drivers’ Championship and still in the F1 2024 title hunt, but has been frustrated by what he calls “silly” errors “over the last three, four races”, with starts proving a particular struggle, Norris dropping from fourth to seventh at the Belgian GP start after running wide at Turn 1.

Lando Norris to ‘forget about it’ all in F1 summer shutdown

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

He ultimately finished sixth at Spa, but was promoted to fifth in the final classification of Mercedes driver George Russell was disqualified for being underweight.

F1 personnel went into summer break mode following the Belgian GP, Norris taking this opportunity to “reset” after being disappointed by “silly” mistakes of late, despite claiming two podiums in his last three outings.

“I think I just need it to reset,” Norris told media including PlanetF1.com in reference to the summer shutdown.

“I’ve given away a lot of points over the last three, four races, just because of stupid stuff and mistakes, bad starts.

“I don’t know why. It’s just silly things, it’s not even difficult stuff. It’s just Turn 1, try to stay out of trouble, trying to make sure there’s a gap and not get hit and I put myself off the track, so just some stupid things.

“The pace is good, the team are doing an amazing job, so I’m happy and in a way I feel like I just don’t want to take a break, I just want to continue, because we’re in good form.

“Even today, I feel like the pace was very strong, but just the last two, three races, I’ve just not clicked as much as I needed to and given up a lot of points.

“So hopefully, I can come back strong.”

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Asked what he puts these errors down to, Norris replied: “It’s many different things. It’s just different stuff.

“Obviously my starts have not been great. I’ve lost probably a good amount of points off the line and now Turn 1 again, easily a podium or even more.

“There isn’t one reason, it’s just probably trying a bit too hard and paying the price for that.”

And Norris believes his best bet to “come back stronger” is to “forget about it” all during his break and switch off from F1.

Asked how he resets from here, Norris replied: “Just forget about it.

“I still have another week of debriefs and stuff, so I’m in the factory for half of next week.

“Just kind of review everything and look over everything, make sure we take a break on a good note, which I think we have. Honestly, I feel like there’s a lot of positives.

“Yes, things just haven’t clicked for us, but I feel like we still got what we need and what we want. So I’m happy. We’ve got what it takes to fight and to put up a good battle, but I’ve just not been on it from my side.

“So going to do my things and go away and forget about it for the time [being] and then come back stronger.”

While Norris trails Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen by 78 points, the Constructors’ Championship is much closer to the grasp of McLaren, the team trailing Red Bull by just 42 points.

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