Lando Norris is delighted with his 2021 Formula 1 season to date, believing he has maximised each race so far.

The McLaren driver currently sits fourth in the Drivers' standings after eight race, with two podiums and as the only driver to finish in the points at each Grand Prix so far.

More remarkably, only once has Norris finished outside the top five so far, and it is that run of results that has the 21-year-old rightly blowing his own trumpet.

“100% I’m doing better this year than I did last year,” he said via Crash.net on Thursday.

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“I had moments last year where I was doing as well as I have this year, but more inconsistently. I would have one [good race] like this but then followed up with a not so strong one or some silly mistakes.

"The main thing I have done well this year is on the consistency side of it.

“I do not think there were any missed opportunities, maybe in qualifying, I could be one or two positions ahead like in Imola and things like that. In terms of race performance, there has never been anything big.

"I am happy with how I have been doing. I don’t think I ever get ahead of myself and get too confident or too cocky or anything," he suggested.

"I always want more so I am never satisfied with what I have done. I always believe that there is potential to do better in myself and everything, even when it is a great lap like last weekend there was the potential to put the lap together, not easily, but to be ahead of both Mercedes and a bit closer to Verstappen, which would be cool. But it is the same for everyone.”

The lap Norris mentioned in qualifying last weekend saw him equal his best starting position in F1 in third after Valtteri Bottas' grid penalty.

But, after some battles early in the race, Lando ultimately ended up all alone in P5 and ruing the gap that still remains between McLaren and the top two teams.

“Yeah, I was happy with fifth because at the end of the day that was the best we could have done,” he sighed.

“But knowing that I was racing for third at the start, down to fourth, and then back ahead of Perez for third on Lap 1, it was cool to be racing there and that is where we can be, but we ended the race getting lapped by the leader, and finishing 30 or 35 seconds behind Valtteri and Sergio.

“Every weekend you want to think what is the next thing you want to achieve, what is the next step, and for us, it is this massive gap to the guys ahead. There are plenty of areas for us to improve.

"Ferrari were very quick as well, and I’m sure they are going to make our lives very tricky this weekend.

“So it is not easy, but in terms of wanting that one more position, or two more positions, we have to catch 30 seconds over a race distance, which is a hell of a lot of time. And something that is not easy to do from one week to another. It is pretty much impossible.”