Lando Norris is focusing on the details to improve in 2020, in particular on how to better optimise his McLaren to suit him.
The Briton had a strong rookie season, impressing immediately with Q3 appearances in Australia and Bahrain, going on to score his first Formula 1 points with P6 in the latter.
However, when reflecting on how he compared against his more established teammate Carlos Sainz, the 20-year-old noted some trends.
“There is a few things that are repetitive on some weekends, when we get to qualifying, how Carlos finds his time and how good he is at adapting to track conditions and everything. Things like that,” Norris explained via Motorsport.
“One of the biggest things I’ll be working on this winter is my knowledge of the car. How it works, not just how to drive it faster around corners or brake later or whatever.
“The setup and everything like that. How to improve more as a package and [get] the car [to] work better for me, and I work better with the car.
“But then there are some things in driving as well that I know I need to improve and every weekend it’s kind of similar things – I get a little bit better at but not enough,” he added.
“So when it comes to next season I [need to] put it together again, same as with other things.
“I’m able to use those different techniques in different corners and different tracks.
“Some things are repetitive, some things are just more about knowledge and a bit of everything. I think I have a strong list of what I need to work on.”
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His desire to improve doesn’t mean Norris underrates his performances in 2019, however, with the 47-point difference between himself and Sainz flattering the Spaniard.
“I’m happy with the progress I’ve made, the progress we made, my engineers, the team I work with, and I think it’s put us in a much better position for next year,” Lando commented.
“It’s not like we’re only ever focusing on driving, it’s been a lot of the off-track stuff away from the track as well.
“We’ve been trying to keep on top of things and improve at the same time.
“Formula 1 isn’t just a game of who can drive the best, there’s a whole package you need,” he acknowledged. “Some of the time it’s just been focusing on all these different areas.
“I had up and down races and everything [in 2019] but hopefully being able to put everything together for when it’s going to count even more.”