Lando Norris says he is no longer "pooping" himself now he has a year under his belt at McLaren - and insists he won't curb his social media antics.
The British starlet, 20, followed in Lewis Hamilton’s footsteps with a stellar maiden campaign in F1 last season and romped to a deserved Rookie of the Year accolade.
Twelve years after Hamilton agonisingly missed out on the 2007 world title in his debut season, Norris announced himself as the new kid on the block with a string of impressive performances in 2019.
And, now he has experienced the glitz, glamour and craziness of the F1 circus, the Bristol-born youngster is determined to kick on when the season gets underway in Australia next month.
Speaking at the launch of McLaren’s 2020 car, Norris joked: "I pretty much designed the whole thing.
"Everything we went through last year, all our comments and discussions between us as drivers has been put into this and based around that.
"It’s a lot more ‘my car’ – we’ve had the input into making this so it feels more like ‘my baby’ and I can’t wait to get driving it! It feels great.
“If I think back to this time last year, well I can’t say the word I was going to say, but I was pooping myself a lot last year. Especially at this point.
"Now I’m a lot more confident, and a lot more relaxed and that prepares me better for this season."
Last year McLaren emerged from the doldrums to finish fourth last season and are aiming to build on that momentum this time around.
The British-based will be relying on their protege Norris and the more experienced Carlos Sainz to deliver the goods.
And Norris, an avid Instagram user with over 1.2million followers, insists the life he portrays on social media won't get in the way of his F1 performances.
He said: “It won’t my affect my personality at all, I’ll still be who I am, I’ll still do everything I do. I’ll still make jokes and do what I do.
“I don’t need to shift my focus - every time I needed to work on things and focus I did, but things can get portrayed differently from what I’m doing myself.
“A lot of people see me make jokes and therefore they blame my mistakes on me having fun. It looks as if I’m not focused compared to other drivers.
“I don’t want to be portrayed in that way. I’m not going too change a lot, it is just small things and I’ll just make sure I look focused.”
