'I wish I had more of Max's "F*** You" attitude' says F1 star, as title fight goes to the wire

Oh, Lando, now we will find out the answer. Welcome to Interlagos, undoubtedly the most electrifying track in the world – the cauldron that promises, more than any other, to determine the destiny of this year’s Formula One title.

You arrive here through a favela-lined road, sometimes to the accompaniment of gunshots. You go inside the undulating amphitheatre thronged by a knowledgeable, excitable, seething mass of Brazilian passion.

And then you look up at the sky.

You can never tell when – or where – the rain will fall. Some parts of the 2.67-mile track can be as dry as a sauna while an ocean falls out of the clouds a few bends away. Or it may just be spits and spots greasing the asphalt as the sun shines.

Before we hand the page over to Norris to offer some of his most revealing and mature thoughts on his temperament, a little context to this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, which the British driver starts with a one-point lead over his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri and 36 over Red Bull’s defending champion Max Verstappen. A total of 114 points await collection across the closing four rounds.

Enough accountancy. Instead, let’s think back to last year and a sliding doors moment here that confirmed Verstappen as the greatest driver of his generation, just at the moment Norris flunked his outside chance of snatching the championship – and there was a chance, whatever anyone says, if only McLaren had realised it and not sat back on the laurel of their constructors’ crown, their No1 and sole consideration 12 months ago.

In the wet, Verstappen, as if on rails, steered down the inside of Turn One to take the lead and a supreme win, the best of his career. At almost precisely the same moment Norris lost control, detoured off, dropped from fifth to seventh, and finished sixth. Game over.

More rain is forecast for Saturday's sprint race, and one feels that if Verstappen is going to retain the title as a semi-distant chaser he needs a big haul over a rain-splattered couple of days in Brazil.

But how will Norris stand up to the test at this of all places now he is the pursued, not the pursuer, after taking the championship lead for the first time since April.

Peaceful in the McLaren motorhome, a fortnight after what he justly considered his ‘most complete’ win in Mexico, he declared: ‘I’m stronger mentally than I have ever been.

‘It is coming to the end of the biggest year of my life, and there is more pressure than I have ever had. But I am dealing with that better than ever before.

‘I am more exposed this season. There are more complaints if you perform badly, but then more people praise you when you perform well. You are torn down or picked up.

‘One thing I have evolved through this year is trying to care less about that. I have my (personal) team for a reason. And they are the ones who are always honest whether the results are good or bad. And that is all I need to care about – people who know me and understand me.’

But is Norris Mark II as strong in the head as, say, Verstappen?

‘Max has a lot more of a f***-you attitude, which in many ways I wish I had more of at times in my career. But I am me. I care less about trying to be something I am not and am more focussed on how I can use my attitude as a positive.

‘The f***-you attitude is a great thing but it is also easy to get hot-headed and emotional. I am more chilled. There are pros and cons. But being me doesn’t mean I am not always learning from others. If in one moment of a race you need to apply a f***-you attitude, you apply it, and if you will benefit from being relaxed, I will take that approach.

‘I get nerves. You are excited, nervous, there is a lot on your mind. There is a lot of pressure on a few things that I have to do suddenly: getting a good start, getting a good turn one. The whole world is watching me reacting to the lights.

‘Nerves are normal and you get butterflies because you are imagining a lot of things. Thinking if I need to defend into turn one. Thinking what I need to do if I go wide into turn one. You are going over a lot of scenarios in your head. Even then I am calm.

‘A lap into the race the butterflies have gone. In Mexico, the run down to turn one dictated my race. A lot rode on that. If I wasn’t leading after turn one, it would have been a lot harder to win, so I knew I had to get a good start, a good run, defend well but as soon as I got through the first chicane, I was like, “I am good.” And then you change your mentality.’

He talked a strong game. He sounded positive. But it’s different out there on the Interlagos track. Norris’s champion status awaits its interrogation.