Lando Norris makes ominous confession after styling his way to a dominant F1 Austrian GP pole

Lando Norris made an ominous confession when he secured pole position on the team radio, where he said that he felt like his old self. The British driver has been marred by an especially poor season where the driver has made far too many mistakes in qualifying, and that has in turn hurt him in the race.

Out of the first 10 races, the British driver has had an error on his final push lap in Q3 on more than half the occasions. While Lando Norris has continued to claim that he doesn't feel at one with the car since the first race of the season, many have put down these errors to the driver's lack of mental strength, something that has been a bit suspect at times since last season.

Since last season, there has been a stark difference in the performance levels of the two McLaren drivers. Lando Norris dominated both qualifying and race head-to-head comparisons against Oscar Piastri last year. This time around, the tides have turned completely in favor of the Aussie. While Norris has put it down to a lack of feel in the car, Piastri has been able to manage the issues much better.

In Canada, McLaren introduced a new front wing that was brought to give more feel at the front of the car to both drivers. While Oscar Piastri ditched the upgrade, Lando Norris went ahead with it. This was the weekend where the duo used the upgrade, and the Brit was quite comfortably the faster driver over the weekend.

Whether this has to do with the upgrade or the Red Bull Ring track layout is something that would become clearer in the next few races, but Lando's confession of feeling like his old self should send an ominous warning to Oscar Piastri. After he secured pole, the Brit said on the team radio,

“Yes! Thank you, guys. Nice to see the old me back every now and then, huh?”

Talking about his qualifying lap that helped him secure pole, Norris said,

“In all the places I could be close to being in the gravel or over the limit, I feel like I was. It was a very good lap, I think, improved in in every corner, and especially around here, you know, with the high speed Turn 6, Turn 7, 9 and 10, especially in quali, you know, you’ve got to commit.

He added,

“It’s exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. So yeah, again, rewarding when things go right, like they they did today. To put the laps in that I did today, I was very happy with. So, yeah, it was, was a fun qualifying.”

Lando Norris on having a margin over the chasing field

From the very first lap Lando Norris did in FP2, the driver has been in a class of his own, where the rivals have found it hard to keep up. This was evident when you compare where Norris was on the timesheets and the kind of buffer he enjoyed.

While he ended up securing pole by half a second, the driver revealed that he didn't think the others were too far behind. He said,

“The others were not far behind. Even the Ferraris and Charles [Leclerc] was a bit close there. I think all the way through quali, the gap to some of the others was bigger than I was expecting. Like, they were not miles away in FP3, but then as soon as we went out for quali, we seemed a good step ahead. So I wasn’t too worried.”

Lando Norris has converted his last three pole positions into wins. The McLaren driver would be hoping to do the same this time around as well and make a statement in the championship battle.

Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli