Norris does not "have an answer" for his current struggles

Despite having delivered some performances in the opening rounds and leading the championships, McLaren's Lando Norris has revealed that he does not "have an answer" for his current struggles that saw him fail to challenge his team-mate Oscar Piastri for the victory.

Having ended up only sixth in qualifying in Sakhir, Norris was always going to face an uphill battle in the 57-lap Bahrain race. The Briton then made an electric start to get up to third, but was found to have parked too far forward in his grid box and was handed a five-second time penalty.

Norris was then overtaken by the fast-charging Charles Leclerc on track, but he was able to regain the spot when Ferrari elected to bolt the hards on the Monegasque's car to finish the fourth round in third place.

On his way to the last podium place, Norris made several mistakes, including parking too far forward in his grid box, overtaking outside the track and locking up during his battle with Leclerc. When asked about his slight mistakes, Norris struggled to offer an answer for his fluctuating performance.

"I wish I knew. I wish I knew the answer. I don’t have an answer, honestly. Even if I did, I would share it with you guys. I don’t know. You just know when you’re – I think when you’re an athlete, when you’re a driver, whatever it is – you just know when things click, when you feel confident, when you feel comfortable.

"I’m confident that I have everything I need and I’ve got what it takes. I have no doubt about that – that I’m good enough, and all of those things. But something’s just not clicking with me and the car. I’m not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season.

"Then, 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, I could not have felt more opposite so far. Even in Australia, whether or not I won the race, I 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, hurts to say. I spent a lot of time, even last night. I left late last night to look into everything and understand what I’m struggling with, what’s not clicking. Trying to figure out what’s changed from last year to this year. Is it me? Is it some of the car? It’s complicated.

"But I’m not doubting myself, even though sometimes it may seem like that. It’s just something’s not gelling, something’s not clicking, and therefore I just don’t feel comfortable when I’m in the car. I’m confident – like I know I’ve got what it takes – but just not confident.

"And when you’re not confident in the car, to know what the limit is, what to do in the slow speed, high speed, any corner – yeah, I’m never going to be as quick as I need to be. And especially when you’re fighting the best in the world. As soon as you’re not settled, then it’s going to be an issue – and that’s what happening now.

Pushed on to reflect on his feelings after the Manama round, Norris conceded that he has left Sakhir with mixed feelings because of his mistakes.

"I mean, it’s a different situation. I qualified sixth yesterday which is pretty terrible, so how can I possibly be happy? That just doesn’t make sense. Of course, I’m a little bit happier today that I managed to get back to P3.

"I had a good start, all those things. But I think P2 was the best we could have achieved today – so we should have achieved it. But we didn’t – and I didn’t, because of some mistakes. So, mixed feelings. I think the pace is good – the car is obviously mega, as Oscar showed, but yeah, just too many mistakes there.

Norris continued: "I mean, when I was in P3 I was pretty happy. I saw it was going to be tough to get past George. They’ve not been that bad this weekend. One and a half tenths off pole position – so they’re clearly not struggling. I didn’t expect to get past that easily, and I mean, I didn’t at all.

"I was happy – a good opening lap, aggressive and attacking, which I needed to be. But then I had the penalty and everything got a lot worse, you know? So I had the penalty, boxed earlier than everyone else, had to push more to try and make up five seconds – just about made it up. But then I’m on older tyres, much hotter tyres, and then kind of paid the price for that again.

"Just every time I did one thing good, I did two bad in a way. I just kept stopping myself from making as much progress as I should have done today. So I mean, I’m happy that the pace was there. Difficult to overtake – clearly the dirty air i