Lando Norris says he has recovered fully after contracting coronavirus last month, and he is 100% ready to get back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car.
The McLaren F1 Team driver contracted COVID-19 whilst taking a vacation in Dubai, with the British racer being forced into ten days of isolation as a result.
Six Formula 1 drivers have now contracted coronavirus, with Sergio Pérez, Lance Stroll and Lewis Hamilton falling ill during the 2020 season, and Norris, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly going down with the virus during the off-season.
Norris says the symptoms he faced were pretty mild, but he has fully recovered from them and is more than ready to finally get back into driving.
“I think luckily for me, COVID wasn’t too bad,” Norris is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “It was a few days or so of initially having no taste, no smell, the normal really, and just feeling very drained and tired for a couple of weeks.
“Since then, [I’ve] basically fully recovered, everything is back to normal. I wouldn’t say that it really affected me too much, [apart from] a bit of the training.
“I wasn’t allowed outside at all, I didn’t have a window or anything. I just had to do some basic workouts in my room, no cardio or runs or cycles. But just doing what I could in my room.
“That was all. Apart from that, since then, it’s been a bit more back to normal, at my house here back in the UK, on my bike, on my treadmill, whatever, all the normal stuff, neck training and just getting back in the hang of things.
“But other than that, I’m good.”
Norris was speaking ahead of the launch of McLaren’s new Mercedes-Benz powered MCL35M, which was unveiled to the world on Monday evening. The Briton, who secured his first Formula 1 podium in the Austrian Grand Prix in 2020, has high hopes for the new season.
“I’m just that little bit more confident,” said the British racer. “I can go into the season, I can go into the winter test and the first race knowing what I really want and what I want in the car from my engineers.
“We work just that little bit more in harmony altogether, and that will bring more performance from my side and as a team.”
