Lando Norris has opened up once again about the mental health struggles he faced when he made his Formula One debut in 2019, revealing how much he struggled with depression and anxiety.
Norris, 21, has become a vocal advocate for mental health awareness in recent years. One of the grid’s most popular drivers, he has recently used his platform and his huge Twitch and social media following to talk about his struggles since making his debut with McLaren.
While Norris has always given off a carefree and fun-loving attitude he said there were a lot of things going on behind the scenes people were not aware of.
« I guess people, from when they just watch TV, they don’t realise many things that a driver goes through, » he said on ITV show This Morning.
« And it’s a bit of shame, but there are more programmes now where you get to see what the driver is like behind the scenes, and the amount of pressure and stress that they have to cope with.
« Especially at my age, coming into Formula 1 at 19, there’s a lot of eyes on you. So, dealing with all these kinds of things, took its toll on me. »
He added: « Feeling like I don’t know what’s next? If this goes wrong, if I don’t go out in the next session and perform, what’s going to happen?
« What’s the outcome of all of this? Am I going to be in Formula 1 next year, if I’m not? What am I going to do because I’m not really good at many other things in life?
« So, just all of that, and then just feeling depressed a lot of the time that if I have a bad weekend, I just think I’m not good enough and things like that.
« When they start adding up over the season, and then the social media side of it all, that can just really start to hurt you. »
The Formula One season continues with the Turkish Grand Prix on Oct. 10.
https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/32337028/lando-norris-was-depressed-lot-an-f1-rookie
