Norris: Lack of "overhype" set up McLaren success for 2019 F1 season

McLaren driver Lando Norris has highlighted the team's "fresh start" in terms of personnel as well as the lack of "overhype" as two key reasons why 2019 has been such a successful season, as the Woking-based side finished the season in fourth place in the constructors' championship after years of struggle.

The turnaround at McLaren in 2019 has been quite incredible compared to previous years in the turbo-hybrid era. The absolute low-point came two years ago in 2017 when the side finished ninth in the constructors' championship. 

The relationship with then engine partner Honda was very rocky to say the least, with the power units lacking both power and reliability. Fernando Alonso would often call them out publicly when things didn't go the Spaniard's way, which only made things worse.

McLaren finished 2018 in sixth but fell off massively at the end of the year, and a new line-up was introduced in Carlos Sainz and Norris alongside team principal Andreas Seidl.

Norris described this "fresh start" as one of the biggest things that changed at McLaren compared to previous years.

“There were a lot of changes in the team which kind of refreshed everything but also at the same time because the last few years had been so bad - coming into this year for a good reason - we didn’t overhype things as much as previous years.

“People worked hard over the winter and with that we then started testing and we weren’t super happy with how testing went but then as the races went on then the environment and everything started coming together more and more," the 20-year-old continued, as quoted by Crash.net.

“I think there’s been a lot of key things but two new drivers, new management and new people looking after everyone, I think just putting it all together has made it all more enjoyable for the drivers and the team.”

Norris finished the season in 11th while teammate Sainz became the first non-Mercedes, Ferrari or Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver to finish in the top six since 2014. This underlines just how competitive McLaren have been in the past season, and while Norris is content with the improvement, he knows there is still work to do.

“The contrast to this year has been pretty huge, so I think that says enough. There’s been a lot of very good things but there’s still a lot of things which have not been so good and things we need to improve on.

“I think we can be happy but there’s still a long way to go to be able to race with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. We can be happy but not overly happy and get ahead of ourselves ahead of next year.”