Norris Sought Greater Edge but Finds Motivation in Personal Progress

So, yeah—Lando Norris was kind of hoping McLaren would just sorta blow the rest of the field out of the water this past Friday during the Saudi Arabian GP. Spoiler alert: Didn’t exactly happen. But hey, our guy Lando’s feeling good about his own mojo, so there’s that.

Coming into this race weekend in Jeddah, fresh from snagging third in Bahrain (he seriously thought he could’ve done better there), Norris was doing his usual self-critique thing. He had a whole laundry list of stuff to work on with his driving, and it actually seemed to help him out. Dude topped FP2, so not too shabby.

“I mean, all things considered, it was an alright first day,” Lando said. “Jeddah’s always a wild ride, super fast and like, ‘Hello, walls!’ everywhere. Tons of close calls. Anyway—I’ve been mostly trying to nail my driving style today, more than tinkering with the car itself.”

He’s like, getting better, building up confidence. So, he kicked off the weekend in a productive way. Winning.

“We’re feeling confident, but let me tell ya, the competition’s not taking a nap, alright? Was kinda hoping for a bigger gap than what we got. We’ve definitely got a speedy car, no lie, but it wasn’t as smooth sailing as we hoped. But whatever, heads down, eyes on the prize. Onward!” That’s basically Lando’s vibe.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on Tsunoda’s crash. Dude’s claiming he’s all confidence, even after miscalculating turn or whatever. Crash happens, FP2 gets cut short. Peeps are losing their minds.

Anyway, at the top (or near enough), Lando’s buddy Oscar Piastri was doing his thing, only like 0.163 seconds behind. A small blink. Oscar’s got his own list of things to sharpen up before qualifying, but he’s chill about it.

“Decent day,” as Oscar said. “Pace is solid, felt pretty in the zone. Just a few corners that need more love tomorrow, but overall? Yeah, feels like we’re in a good spot.”

Then we got Verstappen, sniffing around McLaren’s rear end on the timing charts. And poor Charles Leclerc hadn’t even squeezed out a proper run on the soft tires. He thinks he can strut his stuff on Saturday though. Confidence, baby.

“Man,” Charles starts, “this track is just, like, a beast. You gotta have your swagger on to get it right. We tweaked the car big-time, learned a lot today. Betting on some tweaks to make that engine sing more come tomorrow.”

“I mean, McLaren’s crushing it right now, looking way stronger than us. But, never say never, right? Put all our ducks in a row and who knows?” Such is the hopeful universe of F1.