Lando Norris: "It did feel a bit different"

Soon-to-be McLaren rookie Lando Norris has admitted that he felt "a bit different" doing testing for his own good in an F1 car after two years of doing testing for other drivers, as the teenager will commence his first season in 2019.

The Brit finished second in the Formula 2 championship this year behind now-Williams driver George Russell, but he still did enough to convince McLaren to make the promotion from reserve driver. Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso, both of McLaren's 2018 drivers, left the sport after the season ended.

Norris had already driven McLaren's F1 cars in 2017 as well as 2018, but he explained that it was different for him this time.

"It did feel a bit different," he explained to F1i.com.

"I think it was not more pressure, but you just had to think more, or know, now that I knew, realizing basically that a lot of this stuff is for a lot more of my own good - things that will really benefit me a lot more for next year.

"Although doing all the FP1's and everything is the same thing, everything is going to be helping, this is a lot more, for me, working with the team, the engineers, trying to get everything based more around me rather than Fernando and Stoffel.

"So it definitely did feel a bit different. More focus on really trying to make the best for me, and not so much about the others."

Norris explained that another difference compared to previous tests was his own fitness level, as driving 136 laps at Abu Dhabi (as he did on Tuesday) takes quite a toll on you.