British rookie Lando Norris completed more than 600 laps of Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit on a simulator and is feeling “excited” ahead of his Formula 1 debut.
The 19-year-old, from Bristol, is one of three drivers who will line up for their first race in Australia, along with fellow Brit George Russell for Williams and London-born Alexander Albon for Toro Rosso.
The McLaren driver, team-mate of Carlos Sainz, revealed he had been working on the simulator in preparation.
Norris said: “You can only get to a certain point when you feel confident with the simulator and it always changes when you get to the track and you actually drive it for real for the first time.”
When asked if he won when he raced at home, Norris paused for a couple of seconds before admitting: “No.
“I was driving on F1 2018 and was just doing time trials against the other guys...I think I’ll stick to actual driving,” he said.
“I can’t drive as myself yet, maybe I’ll drive as someone else (on F1 2019) and see if I can beat myself.
“It is a cool thing, growing up and seeing all the big names and choosing Lewis (Hamilton) or Jenson (Button) and finally seeing your own name on it, it’s just a cool thing to think about and to see.”
Norris finished second behind Russell in last season’s Formula 2 Championship and said it was easier not being the centre of attention as the only newbie.
He said: “It’s going to be fun to hopefully race them but it does make it a bit easier overall, a bit less pressure in terms of being a rookie but not a lot.
“There’s still a lot of pressure whatever the circumstances when you race with McLaren and you’re in your first race weekend.”
Speaking about the upcoming Grand Prix, he said: “I can still win a race if our aim is to finish in the points or beat the other teams apart from the top three, things like that.
“We can still win in terms of achieving our goal of the weekend or the race. It’s more about goal setting and achieving those rather than the outright win.”
