Lando Norris has revealed that four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has performed an necessary function in supporting him in his pursuit of a maiden F1 title.
After 4 rounds in 2025, Norris leads the F1 drivers’ standings by three factors forward of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.
Nevertheless, by his personal admission, it’s been a difficult begin for Norris.
Norris has struggled to adapt to the dealing with of this 12 months’s McLaren.
Whereas he leads the standings, Piastri has received two of the opening 4 races.
The Bahrain Grand Prix was Norris’ most disappointing efficiency but.
He certified sixth and endured a scrappy race, finally ending third behind George Russell.
Throughout his struggles, Norris has been unusually open about how troublesome it has been, resulting in some questions that maybe the McLaren driver is simply too sincere with the general public.
Forward of the Saudi Arabian GP, Vettel defended Norris for his honesty, labelling the Briton as a “actual function mannequin”.
When requested about Vettel’s feedback on Thursday in Jeddah, Norris mentioned: “I noticed what Seb mentioned. Me and Seb speak each on occasion. He texts me. All the time in instances once I most likely want it probably the most.
“I actually love Seb. He’s all the time serving to me and texting me and sending me little notes that I recognize lots. Particularly from somebody like him. I believe it undoubtedly means one thing.”
Norris ‘working laborious’ to know McLaren troubles
Norris hopes he finds a step in efficiency in Saudi Arabia this weekend.
Traditionally, this has been a weaker monitor for him relative to Piastri, who outperformed him in 2023 and 2024.
“It’s stuff that me and the crew are working laborious on to attempt to perceive,” Norris defined.
“It’s clear that there are issues have modified from final 12 months once I was feeling very comfy. That’s not permitting me to do nearly as good as a job this 12 months.
“It’s not like I’ve been doing a nasty job however I’m undoubtedly not in a position to be on the stage that I ought to be and know I could be or need to be.
“Working laborious to handle them. I’ve labored laborious to attempt to perceive them myself.”
