What people ‘around McLaren’ were saying about Lando Norris before crushing Austrian Grand Prix pole

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Lando Norris produced one of the best qualifying performances of the 2025 season at the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday. His half-second pole margin was the biggest of the year.

Norris’ McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri wasn’t able to get a second lap in at the end of qualifying after a spin for Pierre Gasly brought out yellow flags. But in truth, the Englishman has looked like the faster driver all weekend.

One of Norris’ biggest problems this year has been execution in Q3. But that was his great strength here as he crushed the field with a 1:03.971, extending his margin from provisional pole.

This was a particularly timely lap, two weeks on from Norris’ ill-judged move on Piastri at the Canadian GP. He crashed out of the race as a result, falling 22 points behind his teammate.

McLaren felt Lando Norris needed to ‘rein it in’ in qualifying before Austrian Grand Prix

Norris thrashed Piastri 21-3 in qualifying last year, but came into the Austrian Grand Prix weekend 8-4 down. He’s frequently been ahead in Q1 and Q2 before falling away in the top 10 shoot-out.

Errors cost him in Bahrain and Canada, while he crashed in Saudi Arabia. But he might have changed his approach for round 11.

Speaking on the Chequered Flag podcast, Andrew Benson said that McLaren insiders wanted Norris to ‘rein it in’. They felt he might benefit from driving at ‘99%’ rather than 100.

By constantly driving at the limit, he was opening himself up to making mistakes.

“At the moment, it seems like there’s nothing but noise in his head,” Benson said on Friday. “It’s almost like he’s let this problem with the car in Q3 get to him a bit, and he’s trying to push a little bit too much, a little bit more than he needs to, and it’s going wrong, he’s making mistakes.

“Sometimes as a racing driver, you go faster by going a bit slower. It seems, and also from talking [to people] around McLaren a bit, that Norris has to take that on board, and perhaps just rein it in a little bit, rather than just trying to push out to the 100% mark all the time.

“If he just goes for 99%, he might find that his average performance level goes up rather than down.”

Lando Norris is benefiting from controversial McLaren decision

After speaking to his former teammate, Carlos Sainz said Norris lacked the ‘feeling’ he needed in the car. But a recent McLaren upgrade may have helped.

The team made tweaks to their suspension to address the numbness Norris was feeling from the front axle. It didn’t deliver immediate results in Montreal, but might have been helpful here.

One report claimed that McLaren had caused a ‘bit of unrest’ with the development. Piastri opted not to run it.

Indeed, it was a response to Norris’ complaints, rather than a collective issue. The team would argue that they have improved their overall point-scoring potential.