Formula 1: Beautifier with self -doubt: How is Norris ready for the title?

Cynics would say: Lando Norris is not suitable for a real stable. The 25-year-old Brit is still a three-point lead in the Formula 1 classification on his upper cool McLaren-rival Oscar Piatri. The Australian is a good one and a half years younger. But both of them separate something else: Piatri looks steadfast and as if nothing could really get him out of the (inner) calm.

Norris is the opposite – and he talks about it. About his weaknesses, his nervousness, about the pressure and everything that triggers it. But is Norris perhaps the prime example of a new generation, a change that Formula 1 has also reached?

Sebastian Vettel says: “Excellent”

“I’m not that old yet, but at my time it wasn’t the case,” said four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel from the German Press Agency. Born in Heppenheim, he finished his career after the 2022 season. Vettel is 37 years old. “I find it a sign of strength that Lando opens. I think it’s exemplary.” It is a shame if Norris attacked or assumed that he was more attackable.

Just like last year when the Brit was in the title duel with Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. Both are very good buddies, and a few incidents on the track did not change anything.

At the time, Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko said that Norris was “not mentally enough” to beat Verstappen. The almost 82-year-old explained a little later after his words had caused corresponding criticism that he was not concerned with mental health at Norris, but about “experience and maturity”.

Hamilton also explained: difficult phases in the 20s

Everyone has self -doubt, emphasized Vettel. “I probably had Lewis (Hamilton), but they also had other generations ahead of us. But they didn’t say them.”

Although record world champion Hamilton is already maintaining quite open handling. Three years ago, after the race in Dschidda, he explained: “I fought mentally and emotionally for a long time. It is a constant effort to continue, but we have to continue fighting.” At that time he drove for Mercedes, but the 2022 car was not a model of success.

The “Sunday Times” also said the 40-year-old Ferrari pilot: “In my 20s I had some really difficult phases. I mean I had to struggle with psychological problems all my life.”

For Vettel, it is important to highlight the change and the courage that Norris is currently opening up to open up. “That he appeals to things that everyone feels, but only a few create.”

The importance of mental health has long since reached international sport. World stars like the American gymnastics giant Simone Biles or the former super swimmer Michael Phelps have contributed to the topic through their openness.

This is how Norris reacts to Vettel

In any case, Norris is good for Vettel’s support. “Seb and I talk to each other from time to time. He writes news to me. Always in times when I probably need it the most,” he said in the paddock on the Dschidda Corniche Circuit. And at the moment Norris needs this support again.

The McLaren is currently the best car, most recently in Bahrain Piatri drove to the pole position, Norris was only sixth in qualifying and struggled with itself. “I feel as if I had never driven a Formula 1 car before.” He lags behind and didn’t know why, he lets the team down. In the race he saved himself in third place behind Piatri and George Russell in the Mercedes.

If the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia goes out this Sunday (7:00 p.m. CEST/Sky), Norris is rid of its World Cup lead. The pressure could hardly be larger. He had already told him last year what that was done with him on the race days. Then he could hardly eat or drink, “simply because I’m nervous”.

Again and again Norris also made mistakes. Most recently in the desert of Sakhir, for example, he did not park his car in the starting line -up as prescribed and got a time penalty for this.

But his handling of your own mistakes is also honest and open. It is striking that none of his direct rivals would use it to be verbal. Hard duels on the track, respectful outside. This is certainly a sign of change thanks to a new generation in Formula 1.