Norris feels more confident: "They're listening to me now"

Lando Norris notices that everything is a little different for him than last year. The McLaren rider is more confident and feels more confident from his own environment. In an interview with Autosport.com the team mate of Carlos Sainz talks about it.

"I guess a little bit, but I'm still much better at driving than anything else", Norris says when asked if he feels more comfortable at McLaren and in Formula 1. The British driver does feel that his experience has made him feel more listened to. "But at the same time, just because I've done it for a year, people gain a bit of respect and therefore listen to you at the same time a bit more."

Norris will start his second year at McLaren in 2020 and that's a bit different from last year, when he entered the royal class of motorsport as a rookie. "I feel more confident within myself and I think at the same time just because you're in year two, and with McLaren as well, then you are kind of seen as a bit more of a professional in some ways, not someone who was just there for one year, and you gain a bit of respect."

Norris feels more responsibility

Within the own team, the 20-year-old talent notices that too. "People listen and then you do become in a way that bit more of a spokesperson where people rely on you, they listen to you and they take actions from things you say", says Norris, who knows there's a downside. "At the same time, say you're leading the car developments and you're leading the engineers and aerodynamicists and if they want to develop the car in a certain way, and you know your actions and things you say have consequences - not consequences -but they lead to things going better and or maybe worse, basically."