Damon Hill speaks and the lessons should reverberate across the decades straight to the heart – or more accurately, the head – of Lando Norris.
The 1996 world champion sits in the McLaren hospitality area just a few feet away from the chair on which Norris provided his latest essay in psychological vulnerability a day before. You could sense the 25-year-old’s nagging doubts amid his rich talent.
Hill draws on his own experiences of being in the spotlight and going up against some of the finest drivers in history.
He raced against Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher, just as Norris faces the best of his era led by the indefatigable Max Verstappen, as well as having to contend with the emergence as a title threat of his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.
‘I had some good advice,’ remembers Hill, now 64 and working at the Miami Grand Prix as a pundit for BBC 5 Live. ‘After a difficult year in 1995, I was helped to change the way I went about things.
‘The advisor was a woman called Mary Spillane. I became aware of her because the BBC asked her as a sports psychologist to do a piece on body language, comparing how Michael and I carried ourselves. I remember watching it in utter horror.
Lando Norris has been told to stop talking about his mental fragility and doubts
McLaren title hopeful Norris is locked in a fight with Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen
Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion, believes Norris must put his concerns behind him
‘I had always thought I would be judged on how I drove, not on how I walked. But that wasn’t the case. I walked with my head down, thinking, as I came into the paddock. I was told I had to stare people in the eye, not look like a haunted figure.
‘I asked Mary to come to see me in Ireland. She gave me various tips, basic stuff. One thing I remember, and this is relevant to Lando now, she advised me not to share all my concerns with the world. She told me: “Save it for the book.”
‘Having worked on Sky for a number of years, I understand better now that everything is interpreted and analysed. For example, Martin Brundle will be able to spot a champion from a mile off on the basis of a driver’s manner and body language because he has years of experience of observing this.
‘Competitors, too, eye each other up and down. It is a real thing. Sport is so much a mind game. The power of the impression drivers give off now is exponentially greater with social media.’
Hill is one of the most thoughtful of world champions and his mind works at lateral angles – a singular contribution Sky have denied their viewers since their unwise decision to dispense with his services this season. That is radio listeners’ gain, and he will be in the commentary box again in Monaco and at Silverstone.
Apropos media, social or traditional, I ask Hill whether Norris – who finished second behind Piastri in Sunday night’s race in Miami and now trails him by 16 points, having not won a grand prix since the opening round in Melbourne – is well served by reading reviews of his performances. Do the interpretations of others play funny tricks on the mind?
‘I remember reading that I made strange jerky movements on the podium,’ he says, recalling the observation penned by sportswriter Richard Williams. ‘I thought, “No, I don’t”. But I looked at it and he was right. So, there are contradictory ways of thinking about this.
‘On one hand, not reading reports or posts may protect you from bruising things you may not wish to be reminded of or be aware of. But, on the other hand, you can read something that is useful, a remedy for something you could put right.’
Norris headed to Miami trailing Piastri by nine points and having not won since Melbourne
He crashed during qualifying in Saudi Arabia before describing himself as an ‘idiot’
Norris has taken a battering from Alan Jones, Williams’s world champion from 1980. While noting that he is an Australian and a Melburnian to boot, as is Piastri, his comments from only a few days ago are pertinent in any assessment of Norris’s title challenge.
Jones, himself as tough as teak, noted that Norris is quick, but added: ‘Mentally, he’s quite a weak person.
‘He’s coming out with all this nonsense that he’s got a bit of a mental thing. He’s dwelling on some of the problems he’s had rather than the positives. When they start talking all that nonsense, you know you have got them.’
In contrast, Jones praised 24-year-old Piastri for exhibiting ‘an old head on young shoulders.’
Hill’s response: ‘It was brutal. Yes, Alan was upping the positives for Oscar for obvious reasons but there is certainly some truth in what he said.
‘Lando has admitted to fragility and doubts, and he needs to put that behind him. It is about fine margins when you are fighting a team-mate, in a dominant car, for a world title, though Max is relentless and has the tip of a wedge between the two McLaren drivers.
‘If it comes down to a state of mind, Lando would be well-advised not to express his concerns so openly but to limit it to his inner circle.
‘There is pressure enough in his situation without inviting people to question his psychological make-up because he is laying it all out there. It becomes a natural and fair subject to ask him about.’
Piastri has been praised for exhibiting ‘an old head on young shoulders’
There is plenty of food for thought for Norris as he looks to keep up his title challenge
A final, left-field insight from Hill.
‘Buddhists have what is called an “inner smile”. Mary taught me this. You meditate and think of something happy. It changes your mood and brings a calmness into you.’
It’s all food for thought for the tortured Norris. If he cares to read it.
