Lando Norris expanded on how F1 Bahrain GP went and his mindset in tackling or speaking out in open, while Andrea Stella backed his drive to explain what’s happening.
After a low-key qualifying, Norris wasn’t too happy even after taking third in F1 Bahrain GP. He lost points to McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri who scored the win and bridged the gap to three points. The Brit had second in the big if not for the time penalty at the start of the race.
After finishing so close to George Russell on the road, if Norris didn’t make a mistake on the grid, he would have ended up second. The Brit opened up on the mindset talk after a difficult weekend, even though he had a podium against his name and salvaged good points.
He doesn’t thinks that he can’t drive, but it is more that he is unable to click or gel with the car, especially in Bahrain which upset him. He wants to speak his mind and he does it, but it is not entirely self-doubt – even though sometimes it is that, which he blocks it himself.
Speaking about Norris, team boss Stella noted the changes that they made to car not suiting the Brit. He added that it may have made things better for Piastri, but the team is aiding as much to help the points leader to sync with the car. The Italian backs Norris’ attitude and how he handles things.
He referenced how the driver has a team around him whether it is his own management or it is the team he drivers for and cited the example of Michael Schumacher. Stella doesn’t see much wrong in how Norris handles things, even if he is self-critical, which allows media to set a narrative of low confidence.
Race, Lap 1 –
Norris: “I mean, the car’s good. It won the race. So yeah, as happy as I can be. I mean, it’s a different situation. I qualified sixth yesterday which is pretty terrible, so how can I possibly be happy? That just doesn’t make sense. Of course, I’m a little bit happier today that I managed to get back to P3. I had a good start, all those things. But I think P2 was the best we could have achieved today – so we should have achieved it. But we didn’t – and I didn’t, because of some mistakes. So, mixed feelings. I think the pace is good – the car is obviously mega, as Oscar showed, but yeah, just too many mistakes there. : I mean, when I was in P3 I was pretty happy. I saw it was going to be tough to get past George. They’ve not been that bad this weekend. One and a half tenths off pole position – so they’re clearly not struggling. I didn’t expect to get past that easily, and I mean, I didn’t at all.
“I was happy – a good opening lap, aggressive and attacking, which I needed to be. But then I had the penalty and everything got a lot worse, you know? So I had the penalty, boxed earlier than everyone else, had to push more to try and make up five seconds – just about made it up. But then I’m on older tyres, much hotter tyres, and then kind of paid the price for that again. Just every time I did one thing good, I did two bad in a way. I just kept stopping myself from making as much progress as I should have done today. So I mean, I’m happy that the pace was there. Difficult to overtake – clearly the dirty air is just horrible. I’m happier with my pace today than I was yesterday, but still just not in the best feeling with the car at the moment.”
Stella: “Ultimately, it [penalty] is a situation that cost us the second place with Lando, so we lost important championship points. At the same time, it gave Lando more opportunity to fight hard and fight with racing spirit. It was important to do good a job with tyre degradation. I think we took advantage of a good tyre allocation because we had two mediums which helped then Lando complete the job in overtaking Ferrari and give it a try to pass Russell.”
Grid box situation –
Norris: “I think at the beginning I was too far back, so I tried to creep forward and crept forward and did the opposite. First time I’ve ever done this in my life. Shouldn’t happen, but it did – and I paid the price for it.”
Stella: “I think Lando was positioning himself too forward. I haven’t seen it too much but our guys spotted immediately, I think we were in trouble because they check stopping position but there was no time to act. It was just a misjudgment in the car. It is very difficult with this generation of cars actually, because you can’t see anything.”
Feeling now –
Norris: “I wish I knew. I wish I knew the answer. I don’t have an answer, honestly. Even if I did, I would share it with you guys. I don’t know. You just know when you’re – I think when you’re an athlete, when you’re a driver, whatever it is – you just know when things click, when you feel confident, when you feel comfortable. I’m confident that I have everything I need and I’ve got what it takes. I have no doubt about that – that I’m good enough, and all of those things. But something’s just not clicking with me and the car. I’m not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season. Then, I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car – how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year, I could not have felt more opposite so far. Even in Australia, whether or not I won the race, I never felt comfortable, never felt confident. The car was just mega and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute.
“But I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have – which hurts, hurts to say. I spent a lot of time, even last night. I left late last night to look into everything and understand what I’m struggling with, what’s not clicking. Trying to figure out what’s changed from last year to this year. Is it me? Is it some of the car? It’s complicated. But I’m not doubting myself, even though sometimes it may seem like that. It’s just something’s not gelling, something’s not clicking, and therefore I just don’t feel comfortable when I’m in the car. I’m confident – like I know I’ve got what it takes – but just not confident. And when you’re not confident in the car, to know what the limit is, what to do in the slow speed, high speed, any corner – yeah, I’m never going to be as quick as I need to be. And especially when you’re fighting the best in the world. As soon as you’re not settled, then it’s going to be an issue – and that’s what happening now.”
Stella: “It is two fault. On one side, these guys have been racing a long time, they know how to go through a process of having a disappointing day and be ready for the next day when you have to go racing. These are mechanism that they have developed as part of their growth when they were young. The can re-energised and go again at a fast rate. At the same time, around the driver, there’s a team, there’s an entourage and we all try and contribute, sometimes it is a word, sometimes it is conversations, sometimes it is a process and an approach and you have to take driver’s management as part of running a Formula 1 team. To be honest, I am not adding anything special here, since my early days in Formula 1, I could see, even on specially Michael Schumacher’s side, how much work was going on around the driver to maximise the performance. It’s a business in itself, within the business.”
Showing the mindset –
Norris: “The thing is, I think it would be even harder for me to not show any of these things. A lot of this is – when I do my interviews and whatever – a lot of it is probably just getting my frustration out. It’s just because of not achieving what I want to achieve. It’s because of my desire to do well and my ambition to win. When I know what I can do and what I’m capable of, and I’m not even close to reaching that – like yesterday – I’m very disappointed in myself. That’s just the way I am. I’m just so hungry to win and I work so hard to win. When it doesn’t go my way, and when I mess up myself, then I’m very disappointed in myself. But during the interviews and saying things I do, I don’t think necessarily have a bad impact on myself negatively. I’ve done it so much my whole life, I’ve learned how to block my own comments away from my thoughts.
“Maybe sometimes I lack a bit of self-belief, and I have done in the past. But this is just also me. It’s the way I do things, it’s the way I work, it’s what has made me as good as I am, and probably maybe at times has limited me from becoming a better driver. But, like I said, I know what I can do and I’m happy. I think what I can do and what I can achieve is good enough and easily up there with the best. So I just need to get back in that rhythm. And yes, maybe sometimes I’m too hard on myself – like yesterday. But I came back today after a nice sleep, re-energised, new day and good to go again and put up a good fight, which I felt like I kind of did. So, you know, this was one day. Today was a new day, and I have a few days off now to recover and go again.”
Stella: “When we talk about strength in professional sport, I think I have not seen any professional athlete or driver, and I think staying within the domain of F1 drivers, I’ve seen various multiple world champions, I have not seen any of them that when there is a situation whereby you would like to do something with the car, but the car doesn’t do exactly what you would like, they are completely comfortable. It is an uncomfortable situation, but the way Lando is navigating through this situation, from a substantial point of view, is the same as other champions that I’ve seen in the past. I think Lando, if anything, is more stylistic. It is relatively unique in how open he is, somehow he makes it visible like when you hear the post-qualifying interview, it was quite self-critical. I know some other champions in the past, they would be much more about the problem is somewhere else.
“And there’s something important here, which is something I admire about Lando, and makes me very privileged and lucky as a Team Principal, that he tends to absorb and point the blame on himself that in qualifying, he didn’t put a lap together, offloading entirely the team, from like, you guys, not your problem, it was me, which is inaccurate, because we know that we have made some changes to the car, which made Lando’s life a bit more difficult. We know technically what it is, Lando is adapting to it, somehow potentially it might have played a bit more on Oscar’s end and we are working together to fix it. But think that there are some drivers, that as soon as there’s a problem, ‘oh, their team’, and the finger is going to the team. And this is not healthy, this is not something on which you build. So when we judge a driver, we should also consider this, certainly for me as a team principal, they are so important to keep building. Otherwise you become…you introduce, if there’s internal conflict, even if you have potential, you know what happens? You don’t use the potential because your energy go into internal fighting, drivers’ against the team, the pressure raises rather than just focusing on this front.”
Title scene now –
Norris: “I think we knew coming into this season – us as a team knew it before the season – that we were going to have some close moments between us and some good fights. And I’m sure we’re going to have more later this year, which I think we’re both excited for. So we have to keep working hard as a team to keep ourselves ahead of the rest. Because I’m sure we both prefer if it’s just me and him – between us and no one else. As a team, we’d prefer that. It’d probably make our lives easier as a whole. So we’re not forgetting that the competition is close. Yes, we’ve got the best car on the grid and things like this, but one mistake – and I paid the price yesterday.
“One tenth and I would’ve been second on the grid today, so it’s frustrating. But it’s close and it’s competitive, and I think that’s a great thing for the sport. But we have to keep working hard as a team. I don’t think we’ve ever let that thought go – with how close some of the previous qualifying sessions have been. With Max on pole, with George only a tenth and a half off yesterday. It’s easy to not do a perfect lap and then not be on pole still. It’s not like we can just cruise around and everything’s groovy. So, we have to keep working hard, and I think we’re excited for the competition between us.”
Here’s penalty to Lando Norris: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-bahrain-grand-prix-norris-hit-with-penalty-for-being-out-of-position-on-the-grid.1829302874178251633
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-bahrain-grand-prix-norris-jumps-up-to-p3-on-the-race-start-as-piastri-leads.1829300366391332176
Here’s Max Verstappen on Lando Norris penalty
Here’s how F1 Bahrain GP panned out
