Norris feels the actual grip level "through my hands and the steering wheel"
On the back of his two consecutive victories in Spielberg and Silverstone, McLaren driver Lando Norris has shared brilliants insights, revealing that he can feel the grip level "through my hands and the steering wheel."
McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris started from P2 and P3 on the grid last time out at the British Grand Prix. Starting in the wet, the Australian managed to extract more grip from his inters than race-leader Verstappen could and picked off the Dutchman for the lead.
The Melbourne-born driver managed to build up an enormous lead of over 13 seconds over Verstappen and Norris. However, a safety car period meant that the championship leader lost his comfortable lead.
At the second Safety Car restart, Piastri braked heavily, and Verstappen shot past him. The stewards rules that the Australian had not followed procedure and handed him a 10-second time penalty. Just moments after this incident, Verstappen had spun at the exit of Stowe and dropped back.
It left Piastri and Norris at the front of the field, and they managed to build a huge advantage over the field. When the papaya cars pitted for slick tyres, Norris emerged ahead after Piastri served his penalty. That left the Brit to enjoy the last few laps before crossing the line to win his home race for the first time.
Asked to reveal whether there are areas that he is comfortable with when it comes to making improvements on his car, Norris stated that while his feeling inside his MCL39 has improved compared to the start of the season, he is still not completely comfortable.
"I'll clear up the first bit. I'll say I'm more comfortable. I wouldn't say I'm completely comfortable. The thing is, it's hard because I can't really compare to many other people.
"I don't know what other people think, feel, do inside the car, and I can only speak for myself and my experience of previous years, and only ever driving McLarens, because that's the only car I've ever driven.
"So, I have to use my experience and voice my opinion on what I think is different and all those things based upon my past experiences in different cars over the past few years.
"But I'm also very much a driver who feels most of my things, like most people, through their hands. There are obviously many other senses that when you're in the car, you try to use and utilise and put them all together, whether it's your vision and just feeling through your body and your legs, your feet, but always my understanding of where the grip lies comes through my hands and through the steering wheel.
"For me, that's my most sensitive area. Anything that's always been since I've started, I've always been very vocal, more vocal than my past team-mates, whether that was with Carlos or Daniel, on issues that I've had in terms of feeling through the steering and grip and understanding these different things.
"That can be positive and negative at the same time, but that's just something I've learned over the years. I think it's a strength of mine, my understanding of that. But therefore, when I don't have those feelings and I can't use those feelings to get the maximum out of the car to perform at my limit, then I'm not happy, I guess.
"And I'm not as comfortable as I want to be. So, it's trying to understand where I feel like we've lacked or we've lost some of those things this season and how to get them back."
