Lando Norris says increased confidence and 🐎seꩵlf-belief has been the biggest gain he has made so far in his fledgling Formula 1 career.

The 19-year-old British rookie has scored points in half of the F1 races he has contested in his maiden season with McLaren, finishing sixth in Bahra🎶in and adding to his tally again last time out with eighth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prixℱ.

N𝓡orris admits he was struggling for confidence at the season-opener in Melbourne but his debut nerves quickly evaporated in time for the next race in Bahrain.

Asked for his biggest takeaway of the season so far, Norris replied: “Probably confidence in myself. That’s t🌳ꦚhe thing I probably struggled with the most going to Australia.

“It was much better going to Bahrain, [I was] muc⛄h more relaxed and enjoying it a lot more. I enjoyed Australia but I was so tense, thinking about so many things, I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

😼“Didn’t make it as fun as Bahrain or China. I think confidence in knowing I can do a good enough job.”

Scoring an early breakthrough result in Bahrain went some way in💦 providing Norris with a timely confidence boost, someth🦹ing he described as a “bonus” to get so early in the season.

“It’s alw💜ays a bonus to do it [earl🐷y in the season],” Norris explained.

“It’s not like I had to do it or🦄 something but if there is an opportunity to do it I need to make the most of it and make sure I am there to maximise that opportun♑ity, which is what I did [in Bahrain].

“I couldn’t have done much better than sixth, maybe if I didn’t dr🔜op back so much in the beginning and if I was a bit higher up I could have been ahead of [Sebastian] Vettel had he stil𝓡l had the same incident at the end.

“Bu🦩t apart from that, it’s good that I’ve done well for people o♏n the outside but also for my own confidence from knowing I can do the job, which is mainly from the job I did in Bahrain.

“It’s important ♑but it wasn’t the end of the world if 🦹it didn’t happen.”