Norris searching for answers amid recent struggles

Lando Norris says he doesn’t understand how he’s still leading the drivers’ championship after struggling so much with his McLaren, but is confident he will perform at his best again once he finds solutions.

Oscar Piastri’s victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix closed him to within three points of Norris at the top of the standings, with Max Verstappen slipping back to third place overall and eight points off the lead. Norris finished third on Sunday behind Piastri and George Russell, and said he doesn’t take the positives out of his championship position as he focuses on trying to get comfortable within the MCL39.

More Formula 1

F1 regulation tweaks 'not easy', and changes are expected in stages - Permane

How F2 and F3 are providing the tools for F1 success

How F2 finally found its way to North America

“That's not how I think,” Norris said of retaining his lead. “It probably should be how I think, but it's not how I think. To finish third, to get some more points on the board, to keep the championship and just my race alive was a good thing, but I'm not happy about the result.

“Third's not horrendous. I think the best I could have done is second. I just made my life too difficult with too many mistakes with the start, with the [Lewis] Hamilton thing. So, I'm surprised. Everyone says I'm leading the championship, I don't know how at the minute! So I'm pretty surprised.

“I just need to keep my head down and keep working hard because I'm not confident, I'm not comfortable, and I know what I can do. I know what I can achieve. It's not gone, I’ve not lost it. It's just things aren't clicking and I need to somehow look into why they're not clicking, but it's not proving to be too easy.”

Norris says he has a few different avenues to explore this weekend in Saudi Arabia when it comes to his qualifying pace, believing that is where the root of his problems are to be found.

“I think my race pace is fine. My race pace is good. It's clearly a bit more my qualifying. I went through a lot [on Saturday] night. I left late. I spent a lot of time trying to look into what happened, why I struggled so much, why I'm not feeling confident.

“I guess we kind of narrowed down to a few things, not maybe clear answers and definitive answers, but a few reasons of why maybe I've been struggling a bit more here and there with my qualifyings and the pace and stuff.

“But I know what I'm capable of doing. I know I can go out and get poles and I can win races by good margins. But something's not just doing what it should, and I don't know what that is. I need to get back home and get working with my team and see what we can uncover.”