Lando Norris says he has found a way to channel the pressure of racing at the front in Formula 1 after admitting he can still 'barely eat or drink anything on Sundays'.
From racing at the upper end of the midfield for years, McLaren's vast car improvements have propelled Norris into a bona fide frontrunner in F1, taking his first two wins this season to become an outside title contender against incumbent Max Verstappen.
Norris says he hasn't felt any additional pressure coming with his new-found status and the expectations that now surround him, but on the eve of the Italian Grand Prix weekend he made a frank admission that the nerves are still making it difficult for him to eat or drink on qualifying or race day.
"There's always pressure. I still get so nervous for qualifying, for the races, I still get just as excited and just as nervous," he said.
"I barely eat anything on Sundays. I struggle to drink anything on Sundays, just because of nerves and just because of pressure.
"I think it's just about how you turn that into a positive thing, you know? How do you not let it affect you in a bad way, and how can you actually use it in in a good way, to help you focus on the correct things?
"When you enter any qualifying lap, when you have to go out and deliver, it gives you butterflies every time, because there are so many nerves, so much pressure. And if you brake a metre too late, or you turn in at the wrong time or whatever it is, it is finished. Game over.
"But it's an amazing feeling at the same time, that I don't feel you can replicate in many other sports and many other things. I'm not too sure, but I still get nervous and I probably will forever get nervous."
Norris says handling his nerves was the most difficult during his first couple of seasons in F1, and he thinks those struggles have helped him find a better balance between being overexcited and reliably delivering performance.
"Because I struggled a lot with this when I started in Formula 1, I feel like I learned pretty well how to handle it," he explained.
"And that's also helped me even in the position that I am now, when I'm maybe not directly in the championship fight neck and neck with Max, but just dealing with more questions and the pressure of having to deliver every single weekend.
"But I think because I struggled quite a bit with it in the past, I feel like I'm able to deal with it in a much better way now, and therefore it doesn't have much of an effect.
"I'm comfortable that I just have to go out and drive and that's all I can do, really not think about these external things.
"In the place I am now, fighting for wins and fighting in the championship, honestly, I feel like it's another weekend."
