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Lando Norris is on the back of his strongest Formula 1 season to date, accruing more points and podiums than ever before, but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped learning. Even as he prepares to head into his sixth season, he’s gaining new skills every day.

And that’s been the key to his success. Zero complacency and complete accountability. Through his five seasons in Formula 1, Lando has earned fans for many reasons, and one of those is his refreshing honesty.

Whether in debriefs or when speaking publicly, he owns his mistakes and his shortcomings and tells it how it is, but he’ll never blame his team, and he expects the same in return: honesty within a no-blame culture.

Asked what he had learned and where he had improved during a remarkable season, Lando said: “There's a lot of things that I've learned from a driving perspective and teamwork perspective. For example, even more openness, I think we put quite a bit of effort in as a team in this area.

“When working with my engineers, in terms of being very open with one another, that is not something new or something I have only just learned, it is something I have always done and continue to do.

“I just prefer the honest truth. I would rather have the brutal, honest truth. If I suck, tell me I suck. If I’m good, tell me I’m good. It is not always easy to do, but it is very important, and we will continue to do this to teach and help other people.”

Lando heads into his sixth year in F1 on the back of his best season to date, in which he finished as the second most consistent driver from Austria onwards, scoring more points than all but World Champion Max Verstappen in those rounds.

Lando only had 12 points when he took on the upgrade package in Spielberg, but he went on to score 193 points in the following 14 rounds. This included seven grand prix podiums, two Sprint podiums, and Sprint pole in São Paulo.

The British star finished as our highest-placed driver, but he was pushed hard by Oscar, who scored two grand prix podiums, a Sprint podium and a Sprint victory. Discussing his third McLaren teammate, Lando says he was impressed by Oscar's adaptation to Formula 1.

“Oscar had an incredible season,” Lando replied when asked whether he was able to learn anything from his rookie teammate. “Keeping calm and being yourself, it’s good to be reminded of that.

“I think he's been very, very good at dealing with pressure, better than I feel like I remember I was when I started, but I think that’s because everyone's very different with all of this - dealing with pressure and remaining calm and chilled.

“I think that is something that I've gotten a lot better with over the years – I know how to deal with all of these things much better myself now. I have a lot of respect for Oscar in how he was able to stay so calm in a new environment, in Formula 1, on the big stage.”

Lando and the team have been working hard over winter as they bid to continue with the remarkable progress they made during the 2023 season, and they now have the pre-season test in Bahrain in sight.

Although they haven’t had any say on our 2024 car, our Technical Team will also be boosted by the arrivals of Rob Marshall from Red Bull and David Sanchez from Ferrari, who officially joined our Technical Team at the start of the new year.

“We’re on the right track,” Norris added when asked what the wider team had learned from last season. “We’ve learned so [much] really over the last four, five, six months. So the progress we’ve made, we’ve learned a lot.

“We have some new hirings coming in, and although not everything that they can bring to us will be on the car straight away, there are some things that we already know now.

“I’m excited because we’re finally on the right track, and we know in which direction to push, and I just want to start the season off well. If we can start well in Bahrain, I’ll be much more excited.”