Lando Norris has suggested he’s not making the most of McLaren’s recent form, stating “there’s too many ‘what could have beens” at the minute.”
His comments come after a stirring fifth-place finish in the Mexico City Grand Prix having started 17th.
A mistake in qualifying meant the McLaren driver didn’t have a representative lap, leaving him out of position for Sunday’s race.
It follows a Qatar Grand Prix weekend where he suggested he could have been on pole for both the race and Sprint had it not been for errors on his part.
That saw the Briton watch on as team-mate Oscar Piastri claimed his first F1 win in the Qatar Sprint, heading Max Verstappen in the Saturday encounter which saw Norris third.
In Mexico, Norris took his chances to move forward well in the early laps to sit 10th when the red flag was shown for Kevin Magnussen’s crash.
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He then dropped to 14th at the standing restart before working his way back through the field – including a fine move on Daniel Ricciardo.
“It was quite an eventful race,” he said.
“I enjoyed the whole thing, apart from my restart.
“I probably had to avoid a very big crash, just people coming across, not probably realising that people can be three abreast.
“So I avoided two extremely big crashes which would have been very nasty – so a bit more self-awareness of some drivers would be great.”
“But the pace was amazing,” the McLaren added of the second half of the grand prix.
“There was a lot of management involved and already when I came over the line the first time I got told to cool the engine, so we maybe weren’t perfectly set up for these things and I maybe couldn’t push as much as I wanted to at times.
“But in the times I could, which was a lot of the second stint, the pace was excellent.
“To go from 14th, 15th, to have better pace than almost everyone but [Lewis] Hamilton and Max [Verstappen] was very encouraging for us.
“As perfect a day as I could probably ask.”
While pleased with his performance on Sunday in Mexico, Norris suggested it was indicative of the missed chances he’s had of late.
“People complain why I’m so disappointing at times, and it’s because of days like today,” he said after the race.
“Of course I’m going to be disappointed, right? There’s a chance to finish on the podium and get another trophy, score more points.
“Why would I ever be happy about a day like [Saturday]?
“Yeah, I moved on very quickly, I moved on better than I did in Qatar and we put a lot of focus on [the race].
“I think that was evident and then it paid off.
“I’m never going to be happy after a day like [yesterday],” he added.
“I know what we’re capable of doing, and when you have a day like today then you think of what could have been.
“There’s been too many ‘what could have beens’ at the minute.
“I just need to tidy some things up and then things can start to roll.”
