Ralf Schumacher tells Lando Norris to make same change that helped Nico Rosberg win an F1 title

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Lando Norris will go into the summer break satisfied with how the first half of the 2024 F1 season has gone but wondering whether he should be in real contention to win his first world championship.

McLaren have gone from the fourth-fastest team in Bahrain in pre-season to arguably having the best car on the grid.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have both won their first Formula 1 Grand Prix this season but could have at least doubled their tallies at various points during the campaign.

Piastri finished runner-up to Lewis Hamilton at Spa but if he hadn’t made a mistake during his final pit stop, he could be celebrating back-to-back wins.

He nearly missed out on taking victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix after McLaren’s ultra-conservative strategy nearly handed Norris his second win of the season.

Norris could make an argument that he should have won in Emilia Romagna, Canada, Spain and at Silverstone.

However, various small mistakes denied him that chance, typically handing more points to Max Verstappen in the process.

Speaking on Sky Deutschland after the Belgian Grand Prix – where Lando Norris made another error at the start of the race – Ralf Schumacher shared his advice for the Brit.

In particular, Schumacher has told Norris that he needs to ‘urgently’ address his race starts after dipping two wheels into the gravel after navigating the opening hairpin on Sunday.

Schumacher has also said that Norris needs to take inspiration from a change Nico Rosberg made during his 2016 championship-winning campaign to go to the next level.

It might be too late for Norris to win the championship in 2024, but McLaren are only getting stronger and will fancy their chances against Red Bull next year in the final season of the current regulations.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from height and parents to celebration

Ralf Schumacher tells Lando Norris to make same change as Nico Rosberg

Reflecting on Norris’s performance at Spa, Schumacher said: “Yes, I mean, the start was average, it was still halfway decent, but then for inexplicable reasons, he drove into the dirt.

“He probably doesn’t know himself why he drove into it, or he didn’t have any grip on the front axle. Of course, these are all small things that have a big impact and that shouldn’t happen.

“He came in with far too much momentum and completely misjudged it. That can actually happen when you have a car relatively close in front of you.

“It can happen, but it shouldn’t happen. And he urgently needs to change this little thing, because otherwise, the relatively cool Piastri will eventually overtake him once he’s got it all figured out in the race.”

Schumacher then suggested that Norris hire a psychologist similar to what Nico Rosberg did during his F1 championship-winning season in 2016 and added: “For more self-confidence, to become calmer, with relaxation exercises and things like that.

“It didn’t help me, I wasn’t good enough anyway, but no, joking aside. I tried it.

“Some don’t need it but I think Lando could use a bit of support.”

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

What Nico Rosberg has previously said about Lando Norris’s mentality

Norris is notoriously harsh on himself whenever he doesn’t have a perfect race weekend and may need some help overcoming those issues.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 last season, Rosberg addressed the issues facing Norris and his advice still makes a lot of sense.

The former world champion said after Piastri’s Sprint Race in Qatar: “What was a little bit of a worry, because Lando always says himself how he sometimes has challenges with mental health, I saw some signs of that unfolding again this weekend.

“He goes into this spiral of saying “I’m not good enough, I’m making mistakes and I’ve done a bad job” and he just repeats it over and over. That’s a typical example of a little bit of a mental struggle there.

“I was going to write [to] him [Norris] maybe because I studied with a psychologist.

“I wanted to say that one thing is thinking you are not good enough, but the other thing, which you can influence and avoid, is what you are saying. If you keep repeating that, you start to believe what you say.”

Norris undoubtedly has the talent to challenge the likes of Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the right car.

However, he needs to get out of his own head, work on his race starts as Schumacher suggests and make sure he stays on top of the growing threat from his exceptionally talented teammate.