Norris reveals why 2021 was his best year in f1 and how ferrari fight has sharpened focus for 2022

McLaren’s Lando Norris is gearing up for his fourth full Formula 1 season, and said the wits of fighting Ferrari in 2021 has put him in a prime position to wrestle towards the front of the field in 2022.

Norris finished a stellar sixth overall in the 2021 suburbanite standings with 160 points – increasingly than he scored in his first two seasons combined – although his efforts weren\'t unbearable to prevent Ferrari from ultimatum P3 in the constructors\'.

But speaking without the season closer in Abu Dhabi, the 22 year old – who scored four podiums wideness the season, personal his first F1 pole position and narrowly missed out on taking his maiden win at the Russian Grand Prix – was asked just how much he\'d learned from the fight with Ferrari, and whether 2021 had been his weightier season to date.

“It’s definitely been, I would say, my weightier season so far, which is unchangingly a good thing when I’m only in my third season,” he said.

“I think I’ve achieved a lot, washed-up well for the team and been there for the team when we’ve had those chances to be on the podium and score the points and bring that fight to Ferrari for as long as possible… I think from my side, and plane for us as a team, it’s been a very good year and we should be happy with what we’ve done.

“I would say it’s helped quite a bit,” he widow on the season-long scrap with Ferrari. “Just stuff with that mentality of them keeping us on our toes, them keeping us pushing, trying to find [the] smallest bit of lap time.

VISOR CAM: Leclerc goes three well-informed with Sainz and Norris at Abu Dhabi race start

“It’s definitely been good for us, probably the same for them in that it’s not been an easy year for them; I think it’s benefitted both of us. But for sure I would say that it’s been a tough season. I still believe that we’ve had a much largest season than [2020], we’re closer to the front, and to the rest of [the midfield the gap] is moreover much bigger.”

The Briton explained that the continuous rencontre posed by Ferrari throughout last season moreover stopped him and McLaren getting “complacent” as they – withal with the Scuderia – aim to get when to their winning ways with a fresh thumping in the new-for-2022 cars.

“I think it’s easy at times to get smug and start to take your mind off of this, expressly if you’re on your own – if you’re just the third-quickest car with no one superiority of you or overdue you there’s definitely ways to fall into that trap,” unfurled Norris.

“It’s still been a very good season, I think not just in terms of results and points but moreover how we’ve worked together as a team, the way we’ve maximised things.”

McLaren will be looking to underpass the gap to Red Bull and Mercedes in 2022 while moreover remaining wary of Ferrari, who have talked up their own improvements superiority of the new season.