By Ian Ransom
Melborne — Lando Norris says that winning his first Formula One (F1) championship had only made him hungry for more as he gears up to launch his title defence at the Australian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver said on Tursday that claiming the drivers’ crown had not changed his work ethic or his desire to be regarded a “hunter” rather than “the hunted”.
“I’ve probably done the most training and things during the course of the off-season than I’ve ever done,” the Briton told reporters at Albert Park.
“So it’s certainly not the case that I was relaxing more or partying more or whatever it might have been. It was quite the opposite, in fact.
“No, I’m still just as hungry. I think it made me want it more, in a way, because you get that feeling. The same as when you have one win, you want another one in a race.
“For me, it was the same feeling as a championship; that one is amazing, but then you definitely want to achieve two.”
Norris won last year’s race from pole after arriving in Melbourne raving about the car’s performance during winter testing.
One step behind
The constructors champions are less bullish about the MCL40 car’s off-season performance this year. Team boss Andrea Stella has said they are a step behind Ferrari and Mercedes.
Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri, who led last year’s championship before finishing third, was similarly reserved about their early-season prospects, saying they should not be considered favourites to win in Melbourne.
Norris was more upbeat. “Even if you’re second, third, or fourth quickest, I don’t think that’s on the back foot,” he said.
”That’s still a very good position to start in. And I think in previous years where it’s been harder to improve over the course of a season, we’ve certainly proved that you could.”
This year’s championship has plenty of unknowns due to F1’s overhaul of chassis and engine regulations.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari’s seven-times world champion, said drivers faced the most challenging season ever as they grapple with the power management demands of the more electrified engines.
Adaptation
Norris said he was still adapting to the changes and would probably continue to well into the season.
“[It will] probably [be] at least a third of the way through this year until we drive different tracks, different tyres, different tarmacs, different weather conditions until I can get close to that level of accuracy that I was requiring last year,” he said.
Four-times champion Max Verstappen is no fan of F1’s technical reset but believes it is here to stay.
During off-season testing, the Red Bull driver was critical of the more electrified engines, which put more onus on drivers to be tactical with energy deployment and regeneration, describing it as “Formula E on steroids” and “anti-racing”.
Other drivers have also expressed concern in the lead-up to Sunday’s Grand Prix where they will contend with the changes under race conditions for the first time.
Williams’ Carlos Sainz said FIA, the sport’s governing body, ought to listen to driver feedback and be flexible to tweak the regulations from race to race.
Verstappen said it was a “bit late” for that. “Everything, the amount of money that has been invested as well into these regulations, it will be around for a while,” he said.
“Suddenly, now things are raised, it’s a bit late.”
Still, he gave a glowing review of Red Bull’s RB22 cars, which will race with their own engine for the first time in Australia.
“I was really positively surprised with how basically everything felt,” he said. “Also, the rule changes have been really complex for everyone, but in terms of the feeling in the car, the driving experience between the engine and the car was good.”
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