Lando Norris hasn’t always been at ease with the fact he could win the Formula One world championship. It has gnawed at him, made him uncharacteristically tetchy, rendered him unwilling to address his possible destiny.
But here at the Circuit of the Americas, 15 miles southeast of downtown Austin, the 24-year-old Briton faces the opportunity of a lifetime with a relaxed contentment heading into the US Grand Prix, the first of six races that will determine if he or Max Verstappen win the most coveted prize in motor racing.
At the resumption of the season, after a hiatus since he crushed everyone in Singapore with a superb drive in a dominant McLaren on September 22, he lies 52 points behind his best mate on the grid.
There are 180 points remaining to be clinched, and, as one driver told me privately, he rates Norris as favourite for the title.
His car has recently been supreme, though Verstappen took pole for Saturday’s sprint. Norris was only fourth best.
Lando Norris faces a tense final few races to find out if he will win the world championship
He is chasing down defending champion and best mate on the grid, Max Verstappen, who is just 52 points ahead
Norris dominated last time out in Singapore and racing is back this weekend following a break
Verstappen, the outstanding performer of his cohort, is close to bulletproof; his only weakness, if it is one, a propensity to involve himself in a scrap, never failing to let his fists do the talking when in a tight corner on the track.
As for Norris, he is a fine driver but less combative and a little more vulnerable.
He is keeping himself to himself here in Texas. He loves Austin, the state capital, the venue he rightly regards the best of the three in the States — Austin, Miami and Las Vegas in that order, he says — but he stays in at night.
He watches Netflix — Gangs of London is a current favourite — and goes to bed early, rather than be lured into one of the many haunts of a city that revels in its status as an outlier in this right-wing territory.
‘Keep Austin Weird,’ declares the promotional slogan.
Down to business, can he penetrate Max’s psyche? ‘I don’t think you can,’ said Norris, whose only pre-race ritual is eating chicken wraps. ‘It is hard. It doesn’t work like that, and Max is one of the people you can get into the head of the least.
‘He has weak areas like we saw in Budapest (where the Dutchman vented his frustrations over the team radio), but he is also a complete driver and he has been in this position before.
‘He has had a tougher battle with Lewis (Hamilton) for a championship (in 2021) than he has now. You just need to beat him and beat him consistently. It has felt a like a long time since Singapore. We have been in a good rhythm since the summer break and I wanted to keep going.
‘But it has been good for us to re-evaluate and to go again and try to come back even stronger.
Norris is keeping himself to himself in the States, enjoying Netflix and heading to bed early
He has insisted that he is ‘quite relaxed’ in his bid to win the final six races of the season
‘The championship will be very close. I don’t think we have had the best car.
‘In the middle of the year we didn’t maximise what we had, but the last few races we have.
‘We are not easily ahead of everyone. Red Bull are close, and Ferrari are, too. Red Bull have brought upgrades here and they could be back on a par with us or ahead of us.’
He was asked if the need to win every race was a scary prospect.
‘No,’ he insisted. ‘If I don’t win, I don’t win. I will do everything I can. Maybe it doesn’t look that way, and I am quite relaxed.
‘I feel the most comfortable I have ever been despite being in the most pressured environment I have faced.’