Lando Norris doubted whether he was “quick enough” for Formula 1 at the start of his rookie year with McLaren.
The Briton made the jump having finished second in F2 in 2018 and completed multiple Friday practice appearances with the British team.
But despite impressing on every occasion he had stepped into an F1 car, when it was time to turn that potential into results, the 20-year-old was apprehensive about his ability.
“I didn’t know if I was going to be quick enough going up against a driver whose done four years in F1 in McLaren,” he told Crash.net of teammate Carlos Sainz.
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“And just in F1 against so many good drivers, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do a good enough job every time.
“I just didn’t believe in myself much but already after Australia and Bahrain, I already gained a lot of confidence. It was simply not knowing if I was going to be able to keep up.”
As Norris noted though, it didn’t take long to show himself worthy, making Q3 appearances in the first two races and scoring his joint-best result of the year in sixth in Bahrain.
He would repeat that finish again in Austria before ending the year 11th in the Drivers’ standings with 49 points, a number of that would have been much higher with a bit more luck.
“I think I can be very happy from how the whole season has gone from myself and from the team,” Norris concluded.
“Coming into the season, I wasn’t very confident with how I was going to do, so I’m happy I kind of proved myself wrong and have done a good job and been able to give myself more confidence and improved as a driver.”