Now though, a backbone of steel has emerged: Norris 2.0 does not give a hoot. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just ignore everyone who talks crap about you!\u201d the McLaren<\/a> driver said with a smirk, immediately after his grand prix victory in Brazil<\/a> and at the precise moment a few boos were audible on the broadcast. \u201cJust focus on yourself.\u201d <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Blocking out the noise: Lando Norris has taken control of the 2025 F1 title race (Getty)<\/p>\n Starting the weekend with just a one-point advantage, it was a decisive few days in the world championship at the forever-unpredictable Interlagos. While the charges of title rivals Oscar Piastri<\/a> and Max Verstappen<\/a> stalled, Norris kept his head above the parapet to register a perfect weekend: two pole positions, two race wins and a maximum 33 points to his name. <\/p>\n What\u2019s changed? Norris, who turns 26 on Thursday, has made no secret of his tendency to self-doubt in the past. In fact, that has extended to self-deprecation and, in the heat of a closely fought title battle, it is an attribute he has worked hard at finetuning.<\/p>\n \u201cI care a lot about people\u2019s perspectives and how I\u2019m portrayed and things in the media,\u201d he admitted in Sunday\u2019s post-race press conference. \u201cI probably cared too much. Even at the beginning of the year, I think I cared too much and it probably was affecting me in not the best ways. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve just learned to deal with those things better. Not by not caring, because I still always want to have a good impression, I never want to be rude or do those things.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019ll always try and make my point and say what I believe in. That\u2019s one of the things I\u2019ve learned the most: just to be true to yourself, have confidence in yourself, believe in yourself, and speak your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n His mental fortitude has not been the only factor behind a remarkable recent turnaround, in which he has executed a 58-point swing in just six races, dating back to his cruel retirement in Zandvoort in August. It was noted then that Norris had to change a habit of a lifetime <\/a>\u2013 and he\u2019s done just that. <\/p>\n Labelled by some as a \u201cparty boy\u201d, Norris revealed back in April that he wouldn\u2019t be attending the 2025 King\u2019s Day celebrations in Amsterdam, a year on from infamously cutting his nose <\/a>prior to his maiden F1<\/a> win in Miami. He went on to say he had given up alcohol. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Norris cut his nose partying in Amsterdam last year (Getty)<\/p>\n \u201cI had a good week [last year] in Amsterdam with Martin [Garrix], but I\u2019m fighting for a world championship now,\u201d the Bristolian explained.<\/p>\n TOP-3 – F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP<\/p>\n 1. Lando Norris (McLaren) \u2013 390 points<\/p>\n 2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) \u2013 366 points<\/p>\n 3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) \u2013 341 points<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t afford to do something like this now. I have to go back home and train. This race [Saudi Arabia] was physically demanding and I\u2019d love to have a drink now. But I haven\u2019t had a single drink all year and I\u2019m proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n A month later, he also revealed that he had stepped away from social media<\/a>, though signs suggest he is back on Instagram in recent months, to the delight of his 10.8 million followers. Nevertheless, after obvious signs of fragility in his inaugural title showdown with Max Verstappen last year, his off-track priorities have clearly changed.<\/p>\n As ever in F1, mechanical tweaks have paid dividends too. Norris has benefited from a new front suspension, implemented in Canada back in June, which has given the Briton more feel with the car\u2019s front axle, pivotal for confidence when driving on the limit. <\/p>\n Contrastingly, Piastri has ditched that suspension change on his McLaren car, opting for the previous front-of-the-car geometry, as he grapples with his own sensitivities at the wheel of the MCL39. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n While Norris has found his form, Oscar Piastri\u2019s 34-point lead has crumbled (PA) open image in gallery<\/p>\n Norris (centre) has benefited from a new front suspension (Getty)<\/p>\n Norris also revealed at the last race in Mexico that he has removed his delta time on his dashboard during qualifying, in order to be fully focused on his lap and not distracted by previous attempts. <\/p>\n Most drivers refer to a delta time on their dashboard during qualifying sessions, in which they can compare in real time how their lap compares to previous efforts. By ditching this feature on his wheel dash, Norris is an outlier on the grid. But recent results speak for themselves: three pole positions on the spin. <\/p>\n \u201cI think the thing when I don\u2019t have it [delta time] is I push no matter what \u2013 no matter how the start of the lap was, no matter how any corner was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Norris now has a 49-point advantage over Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen (Getty)<\/p>\n \u201cI guess it\u2019s because you have no reference of the overall lap time, you just always try and maximise every corner to the maximum. Otherwise, sometimes I just stare at it too much and that\u2019s never the best thing.\u201d<\/p>\n While all these factors may seem somewhat micro, combined, they have given Norris a pivotal edge in what is a marginal gains sport. So much so that he now has one hand on the drivers\u2019 championship trophy, with a 24-point and 49-point lead over Piastri and Verstappen, respectively. <\/p>\n Unlike Verstappen last year, Norris cannot seal the championship at the next race in Las Vegas. The earliest he can claim the title<\/a> is the sprint race at the penultimate round in Qatar. Yet with Piastri collapsing at an unfathomable rate of knots and Verstappen now ruling himself out of the fight<\/a>, despite his tremendous drive to third from the pit-lane on Sunday, Norris has all the momentum in his back pocket. <\/p>\n It is his to lose. Needless to say, a maiden title would be the biggest of middle fingers to all the naysayers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-278864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Blocking](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2245873907.jpg\")
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