Lando Norris has managed to craft out his best-ever start to an F1 season this year, having secured 101 points out of just nine races. Not only has he secured three podiums already, but he has finished in the top-five at every race so far, barring the Spanish GP.

And of course, this is undeniably a drastic upsurge in performance from the McLaren driver compared to last season. He cherished a similar start to the 2020 season, but his performances came down with each passing weekend.

However, this year, nothing seems to be capable of stopping Norris, and he is now starting to challenge Mercedes and Red Bull drivers as well.

So, where is he finding the pace in that McLaren, especially since the much experienced Daniel Ricciardo is struggling horribly?

Well, former F1 driver, Jolyon Palmer, opened up about how Norris found the spurt in performance this season out of nowhere.

“Norris looks like he’s had a hard winter, got his head down, and has found a new level of performance. And it looks to me like he is taking things more seriously now as the team leader,” Palmer told F1.

“We are seeing fewer jokes or songs on the radio from Lando and in turn, we are seeing more results on the track. Maybe it’s a coincidence. But to me, it looks like Lando is more clinical this season.”

Lando Norris has upped his game hugely: Ex-Renault F1 driver

Palmer reckoned that Norris took Ricciardo quite seriously, which is reflecting evidently on his results this season. This is consequently helping the Briton lead the team from the front and push for glory.

“He seems to be extracting more out of himself and has upped his game hugely. Possibly, it is the arrival of Ricciardo that has made Lando push himself into this new gear and take his game on, and he’s now becoming a top-tier driver in his own right,” Palmer said.

Norris‘ recent podium came at the Austrian Grand Prix, but not without challenging the ever-dominant Mercedes F1 team. What’s more, he also managed to make a stunning move on Lewis Hamilton around turn 6 during the race, and almost caught the other Mercedes driver as well.

Unfortunately, Norris couldn’t bring the gap to Valtteri Bottas down to less than a second and reached home in P3, which is still an impressive result for a mid-field team like McLaren.

Overall, the Briton is now all set to race at Silverstone next weekend. Can he yet again carry out his top-class show to deliver strong results in front of his home crowd?

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