Lando Norris came to Belgium on the back of a pair of race wins in Austria and Britain, having put his Canadian GP nightmare well behind him.
The first was a particularly impressive performance given that it came soon after his Montreal disappointment.
Of course at Silverstone he benefited from the penalty that race leader Oscar Piastri landed. However he still had to get the job done in tricky circumstances. A win is a win, and it was a huge boost to his morale.
If he’s going to beat his McLaren team mate to the World Championship Norris has to keep up that momentum and outscore the Australian as often as he can, starting with Spa this weekend.
He has had his struggles this year as he’s tried to get the most out of the car when it matters in qualifying. Meanwhile Piastri has stepped up his game in all areas, and has been impressively consistent.
The last two races gave Norris a chance to recover his mojo and start to get his campaign back on track.
“I feel like I climbed a little bit back to where I was,” he said at Spa. “I certainly feel happier. Austria was a place I felt the happiest, even happier than I was in Silverstone, with the car, with the knowledge of where I can push, how I can push, and all those things. It’s always been a good track for me.
“So I think a selection of things came together. And the pace I had then in qualifying was quite easily and most convincingly, the best I’ve had all season, and just my laps consistently were always up there in P1. I think there was some positive things that came from that.”
Norris concedes that he’s still working on how to get the best from the MCL39.
“We’re still trying to work on things to give me more from the car,” he said. “In order to allow me to unlock that more often, like I was doing last season. There are certain things that I just had to work on and be better at, and I feel like I have.
“A nice thing is that I had the two wins. The most positive thing from those two weekends was just that the pace was better from the off, and I was more comfortable with the car and in understanding how to get the most pace from it at times, that brings a more of a smile to my face than just winning the race itself, because it’s progress, and that’s always a very good thing, it’s a very rewarding thing.
“But there’s still some more I need to get. There’s still more things. I feel better than what I did. So do I feel more confident that I can have more performances like that? Yes.
“Do I feel as good as I still felt last season, and that I’m performing at the same level consistently enough? I would still say no.
“I have more understanding of everything now. We’re talking my new things like small, incredibly small gains here and there. I feel more of a threat now, yes, but am I happy enough still with where I’m at, where the car is, and my harmony with the car, it’s still not to the level that I that I want.”
That was a typically honest assessment from Norris, who always wears his heart on his sleeve.
He’s not blaming the car or anyone else – he knows he has to do a better job.
“My driving, how I drive the car, my ability to adapt to more driving styles, per se,” he said. “That’s really the main thing, working at how I drive the car. It’s also my job at the end of the day to drive whatever car I get given as quickly as possible.
“But it’s a mixture, also some more things away from the track, with my team, I have a very good group of people around me.
“So I’m working on the things for on the track and off the track, how I can approach the weekends in a better way, most of which is how I can work on being a better driver in the situation of struggling with things that I don’t like, or I’m not used to, or changes on the car for this year.”
Spa provides everyone with a curveball, as the sprint format, potential for rain and a tricky Pirelli compound step in the dry make life complicated.
For McLaren you can throw in the new floor, validated in practice at Silverstone but not raced, and it could be a tricky weekend to get right. Norris and Piastri might not be able to focus solely on beating each other.
“I think it’s definitely a weekend where there’s just a lot of opportunity for everyone, and even more than Silverstone.
“[Often this year] we have an advantage over everyone, because the team give us such a good car, but I don’t expect that as much on a weekend like this, like with the weather, how It’s going to be – it could be dry and then suddenly rain at different points.
“And you might have someone I guess who gets half a lap more in the dry section on track, and then the rain comes again.
“And that’s what is also going to happen to the season. It’s more about it can be maybe that bit more consistent, rather than who can be quicker on one weekend than the other.”
Adam Cooper F1 