Lando Norris makes worrying admission amid F1 title bid - 'I'm nowhere near'

Lando Norris may be sitting pretty at the top of the standings, yet he confesses to feeling "nowhere near" his peak performance. And for now he remains bewildered at the reason behind his struggles as team-mate piles on the pressure.

After securing third place at Sunday’s - victory was dominantly secured by his team-mate - expressed how he had felt much more assured in himself and his car last season, even though he missed out on the drivers' championship to ace .

"I'm confident that I have everything I need and I've got what it takes," insisted Norris. "I have no doubt about that, that I'm good enough, but something is just not clicking with me in the car."

Qualifying was underwhelming for Norris in Bahrain as he could manage to go only sixth fastest despite the McLaren cars being clearly the fastest. And he laboured throughout the Grand Prix to eventually make it up to third, while Piastri barely broke sweat on the way to his second win of the year.

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"As soon as you're not gelling [with the car], then you're going to be in issues, and that's what I have at the moment," Norris said. He still leads the drivers' championship but his advantage was cut to just three points with his team-mate now the first winner of multiple races in 2025.

Norris won the opening race of the year in Melbourne but, even there, Norris says he was struggling to get to grips with his new McLaren machine despite it being widely regarded as the most competitive on track.

He said: "Last season, I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car, how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year could not have felt more opposite so far.

"Even in , I won the race but never felt comfortable, never felt confident. The car was just mega and that's helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute, but I'm just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say."

McLaren have been challenged by other teams but their lead of 58 points over second-place in the constructor standings after just four races is substantial. A significant change in the balance of power will be needed this year for anyone to be able to challenge them, setting up a duel between Norris and Piastri - the sort of situation which has bred internal conflict within F1 teams in the past.

And Piastri admitted: "We haven't had a consistent challenger week-in, week-out. As long as we have the best car, it's going to be tight between Lando and I."