Norris satisfied he did nothing wrong before heavy Spa crash

2021 Belgian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by and

Lando Norris said his heavy crash in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix hasn’t put him off his stride.

The McLaren driver admitted the huge shunt at Raidillon in wet conditions during qualifying would have made a greater dent in his confidence earlier in his Formula 1 career.

“It’s my third year, I’m a lot more experienced but more importantly I have a lot more confidence this year that I did the last two,” said Norris. “I’m just in a better place mentally and just with my state of where I am in Formula 1.

“Now I know it was more because – well, I was pushing and taking risks and stuff and I know it was for a ‘good’ reason in a way that I crashed.”

While Norris admitted he took risks on his run as the track became increasingly wet in Q3 at Spa, he said he was satisfied he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“I just feel like coming into this weekend if it was last year or year one I would have been a lot more worried and maybe then taking it a lot more cautious and things like that.

“But I don’t feel like I did anything wrong with my approach to that qualifying or that lap or anything. And I’m happy to do exactly the same and take the same risks this weekend.”

Norris was quickest in the first and second parts of qualifying before he crashed. He said he was feeling at one with his car before he went off.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

“The wet conditions are where more drivers can show a bit more their potential and it’s not as dependent on the car as compared to what the dry conditions are. So it’s where you can make big differences and sometimes you can take bigger risks and things like that.

“I was just in a very confident place. I was there in Formula 3 in the wet and it was pretty quick. So my knowledge and my confidence was just high and I knew what I needed to do to be quick.

“Until that point I didn’t feel like I was taking any extraordinary risks or anything. It was just I was at one with the car and confident with the braking and things like that, which can make a massive difference in the wet. The car was giving me that confidence, obviously, to be able to do it.”

However he isn’t dwelling on a potential lost pole position and even race victory.

“I don’t know if I would have got pole or not. Every situation is different. The conditions were changing and so on. But it tended to be the wetter it was, the better we were and the quicker we were relative to other people. And I want to be confident I could have had a very good result.

“I would hate to say I could have been pole because I just felt I missed out on, not like a win because I wouldn’t class it as a an outright win, but just a good result and ending up 14th or whatever I was makes me feel a lot sadder.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2021 Belgian Grand Prix

Browse all 2021 Belgian Grand Prix articles

9 comments on “Norris satisfied he did nothing wrong before heavy Spa crash”

  1. Positive attitude – good man

    1. @ahxshades

      Agree, it is a positive attitude and helps going into the next race with a clear mind.

      I do think he may have taken the curb (@#3) a little too hard losing aero stability going into Eau Rouge effecting his downforce during those conditions but can’t blame him or say he did anything wrong, he took the normal path as everyone had been doing, the conditions just got worse.

      I hope to see him do well in this race

  2. Nice driver. And everybody can make a driver error.
    This one was costly but looking for the edges is sometimes going over the edge.
    In a slower car this is likely to happen more often.

  3. Nice attitude, and ‘one with the car’ is ominous for the competition when it’s a tricky car to begin with.

  4. Such a shame, very likely pole or at least 2nd place, and consequent race result too.

  5. Good attitude. He didn’t really do anything wrong as such, pushed just a touch too hard for the right reasons, he felt he had a shot at pole in those conditions and got caught out doing so.

    He sort of had to as well, given the conditions were worsening and that was probably as good as they were going to be in the session. It was likely going to be a one hit affair.

    Showed how much confidence he had in the car.

  6. I hope that isn’t actually true. He should definitely stay positive and look the future, but this was a mistake. You must learn from mistakes.

    The lap he was on when he crashed was essentially a warm up lap. Why push so hard then? He had just been on the radio saying he was aquaplaning everywhere, so why push on a warm up lap? All the way through he was pushing hard and topping the timesheets which on the face of it seems the right thing to do. But you didn’t see Verstappen or Hamilton pop up at the top of the time sheets until the last laps. Why? Because it’s only those laps that matter. If you push hard earlier on, you risk a crash for no good reason.

    Lando’s a great talent, but this was a mistake.

  7. I have an opinion
    3rd September 2021, 8:17

    Lando had a massive shunt, scored no points, got away with minor injuries, cost his team a fortune but doesn’t feel like he did anything wong. I disagree with Lando.

    Is he saying the crash was bad luck and not due to driver error?

    I know a place full of overconfident ex-drivers.

    1. To answer your question, no he isn’t. But you already knew the answer before you typed it. You’re trying to make it look worse than it is.

      I also don’t agree with Norris though. He could be correct if he crashed out in his final attempt at Q3. His statement would make sense then. But it is a fact there was no need at all to risk anything the moment he crashed. In fact, with those changeble conditions and being the first one out he’d better take less risk than usual.

Comments are closed.