ZANDVOORT, Netherlands :Lando Norris has won three of the last four races but the McLaren Formula One driver said ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix that he was no great believer in momentum and expected the second half of the season to be ‘tricky’ and challenging.
The Briton won at Zandvoort last year and returns nine points behind Australian teammate Oscar Piastri with runaway leaders McLaren chasing a record-equalling fifth successive one-two victory.
“I never say I have good momentum or believe in that kind of thing,” Norris told reporters when asked on Thursday whether momentum was really a thing.
“But does it give you more confidence and set you up for the next weekend in a better mindset? Then yes, under that bracket, I would say yes.”
Norris said having two good races did not mean the next one would also be good in a sport where there were so many variables.
“When there’s so much variability, it’s hard to just classify things as momentum,” he added, accepting that he had also been lucky at times.
Piastri could consider himself unfortunate to lose out in Britain and Hungary, penalised in the first and missing out on strategy in the second.
Had he won, the Australian would be 37 points clear but he told reporters he did not feel “hard done by”.
“I feel like I’ve driven well this year… there is an alternate universe where a lot of things look very different, but none of that matters,” he said.
Regardless of individual ups and downs, McLaren are enjoying a rare streak of success and operating largely in a league of their own.
They have won 11 of 14 races and are within sight of retaining the constructors’ championship, possibly as early as Azerbaijan next month.
If they did seal a 10th constructors’ crown in Baku, it would be with a record seven race weekends remaining, one better than Red Bull managed in 2023.
The drivers’ title is more likely to go down to the wire in Abu Dhabi, and Norris said both McLaren drivers were already factoring that into the way they went racing.
“You’ve got to understand who you can take risks with, who you can’t, and when to take those risks,” he said.
“I think that’s a general thing, but it’s also something I think you have to understand a little bit more when you are fighting for a championship.”
