McLaren driver Lando Norris says he is experiencing a "rare" feeling behind the wheel because he knows how to optimise the speed in his car.
In addition to his two podium finishes in 2021, Norris is now the only driver in Formula 1 to have scored points in every race this year - and to have scored more than twice as many points as his more experienced team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
He has previously said he has yet to really like the MCL35M, but now he's feeling confident about pushing the car to its limits through adjusting his driving style to match.
“I feel confident in myself, which is rare,” Norris told Sky Sports. “I feel confident that I just know how to drive with a car you can push in certain areas.
“It’s clear a lot of the time what needs to be worked on and when you put a few simple things together, things can start going well and you can get a lot of confidence and a lot of performance out of the car.
“We still want to be fighting Red Bull and Mercedes and they are still quite a way ahead of us. We have a good amount of confidence, not overly confident, but just in a good position so we’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
His confidence, he says, plays a large part in his ability to do well on a regular basis – without wanting to admit when he wasn't at his best behind the wheel earlier in his career.
“It’s something that’s hard to think of in the first few years of Formula 1 because you never want to think ‘I’ve got no confidence in myself’.
“But it makes a bigger difference than you think eventually when you do get that confidence and you feel like you know what you need to do – I know how to put a good lap together, how to put a good weekend together and things like that.
“You hate to admit it when you’re a bit younger and inexperienced and things like that, it’s hard to admit that you don’t know what to do, but now I’m in a position where I feel like I do know more what to do and when you accomplish it and put it all together you get a good reward.”