19 October 2023 , 09:27
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Nico Rosberg is worried about Lando Norris ' struggles with his "mental performance", with the former world champion ready to reach out to the McLaren star.
Norris has impressed since first entering F1 in 2019 and is widely regarded as a future world champion. He has led McLaren's stunning turnaround in form this season, securing five podiums since the British Grand Prix in July.
The Englishman has spoken frequently of his struggles with mental health, particularly with self-doubt. He will be hoping for a better weekend at the United States Grand Prix, after a difficult time in Qatar a fortnight ago.
Though he finished third, Norris was unhappy with his overall performance, blaming a "lack of talent" for mistakes in qualifying and in the sprint race. But Rosberg believes the 23-year-old is being too hard on himself.
“I think Lando has been doing really well when he wasn’t really challenged so much, he was always at his best. If you look at Qatar now suddenly you’ve had Lando a little bit off, never putting a lap together in qualifying," he told Sky's F1 Podcast.
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"Therefore having a worse grid slot and not getting the best out of the weekend, because Oscar beat him both on Saturday and on Sunday. What was a little bit of a worry, because Lando always says himself how he sometimes has challenges with mental health.
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Nico Rosberg has raised concerns over Lando Norris' struggles with self-doubt (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)"I saw some signs of that unfolding again this weekend. He goes into this spiral of saying ‘I’m not good enough, I’m making mistakes and I’ve done a bad job’ and he just repeats it over and over. That’s a typical example of a little bit of a mental struggle there.”
Having worked with a psychologist during his own successful career, which culminated in winning the world championship in 2016, Roberg believes Norris would benefit from using one himself.
“I was going to write [to] him maybe, because I studied with a psychologist for 10 years. I was really the driver who was most dedicated to improving my mental performance, and also my mental wellbeing, because it came hand-in-hand,” he added.
“So every two days I worked two hours with a psychologist. It was more intense than the physical training, it was insane. And it was a big, big part of me becoming world champion. So I wanted to write to Lando actually.
"I wanted to say that one thing is thinking you are not good enough, But the other thing, which you can influence and avoid, is what you are saying. If you keep repeating that, you start to believe what you say.
"So it’s important to try and avoid ‘I’m not good enough and I’m making too many mistakes over and over and over. Let’s find a balance there. We all appreciate his honesty and that’s how he is.
"So let’s keep that. It’s just a matter of saying once, ‘it’s not been my best weekend, for some reason it was difficult to put the lap together in qualifying’ and then that’s it. There’s a difference between saying it once like that and just repeating it over and over for the whole weekend.”