When a yellow flag came out and the camera was very cut into a car in the barrier and revealed through the calming dust that it was a McLaren, you knew it was Rand Norris.
“f***ing Idiot” became an outstanding line from Norris’ team radio after confirming he was OK.
I definitely headed towards Q3 as a pole position favorite, and certainly a good mix, and Norris’ session ended before I spent time on the board. The P10 was his best starting spot, and his team had a car to rebuild.
There were multiple reasons why Oscar Piastri seemed very calm and orderly in his approach this season, and he felt he knew that in order to raise the qualifying game, his approach this season would look very calm and orderly.
But for Norris, the fallout from Bahrain was to knock on his confidence. Piastri was comfortable winning, but third in the qualifying P6 rocked the championship leader. He admitted that he had to try to clear his head during the race as the triple header moved quickly to Saudi Arabia.
“We needed a few days off. We needed a reset,” Norris said as he arrived in Jeddah. “I probably totally liked the next few days, but I relaxed my three days to the fullest.
“But at the same time, I think you still have as much thought as you are trying to get away with, in the minds of all athletes and drivers.
“It’s still a very good start to the year, and I’m trying to make you think about the success of the season. Yes, I know I could have gotten better, but even so, it’s the start of the year I had dreamed of before the start of this season after not feeling comfortable in the car.
“So, I’m still quite a few, but I’m still trying to remind you of a lot of positive things, but there are still a lot. Being myself is trying to figure out the problems, the struggles, the reasons behind them all. The most difficult thing is trying to find the answer to things.
Norris’ differences were prominent between Bahrain’s frustration and downbeat figures and the person arriving in Saudi Arabia, and the words were even more prominent before the wheel got back on track. It’s not that Norris wasn’t as self-critical as ever, but he made himself clear in a much clearer and constructive way than he had been struggling a few days ago.
“I know I’m going to be much better than I’m doing now and I can play at a much higher level,” he said. “My level of confidence was very high at the end of last season. I just understood the car, not for other reasons, I could understand how to drive it, get out and do it perfectly.
“I don’t feel like I’m in the way I drive at all, and I hate not knowing how to go out and perform on the qualifying lap. I’d be far more likely to say yes than I did right now.
“It’s just because I feel like the car itself. No, that’s not a reason, but I know what I can and I can do.
“So the fact that I’m still leading the championship, the fact that the beginning of the year wasn’t scary, perhaps gives me more hope than anything else.
It is admirable that Norris wears his mind on his sleeve, even though he sometimes feels too harsh on his own, he wears his mind on his sleeve. But after a strong performance in Saudi Arabia, I admit that those quotes either proved his reset or that if he had any poor, he hoped to be far from his updated prospects.
After considering slightly outperforming his teammate Piastri throughout the weekend, he hit a wall in Turn 5, finishing 10th on the grid, allowing him to easily shatter Norris’ confidence while Max Verstappen and Piastri form the front row. But instead, there were signs of recovery from age 25, even if he was exploring on team radio.
“It makes sense! I agree,” Norris said over an hour after crashing. “I should fight for Paul, especially in rap, I shouldn’t take the stupid risks like I did.
“I’ll review it all, but it’s not a guarantee we would have been at Paul because Max did a good job. Red Bull made the whole qualifying quicker, which was not a real surprise.
“I’m not proud. I’ve disappointed myself and my team and everyone is doing a big job of fixing it all. That’s just right.
The reason for optimism comes from the way Norris dismissed the mistake as something completely separate from his recent struggle in terms of the way he handled, and he actually saw a great deal of progress in that respect.
Given how open and honest he is, it’s hard to doubt Norris when he’s more positive than you would expect, but it was a photo enhanced by his team principal Andrea Stella.
“I think I’ve changed my mind right away, not just the next 24 hours, but five minutes later, or at least five minutes later, after Rand returned to his office,” Stella said.
“It’s not a position to want to be a race where we could start from the front row, but as an opportunity to actually show our resolve, to show strength from an attitude perspective, this is what we spoke of in Debreiff, from a mindset perspective, post-all fadie-and-and telling everyone that they have a good attitude.
“We really hope that tomorrow will be the free air to be up and we can use the pace we saw on Friday. This weekend could be a weekend where we are stronger, stronger and more confident, as we actually have our strengths.
“We probably need to understand how to deal with the fact that we don’t have to go in the last few milliseconds until we make the car more authentic with regard to the feedback the car gives to the driver. This is the responsibility of the team.”
Perhaps it was a huge spread to try and hold the team’s shoulders accountable. The piastry placed it on the wall and was 0.01 seconds from pole position, but Stella always protects the driver, even if she insists that she doesn’t need to pick up Norris after an error.
You believe in him this weekend. Norris may have just dumped a ton of points and championship leads, but his progress and attitude in Jeddah on Saturday night suggests that this could be a key weekend to a stronger championship candidate in the broader context of his personal development.