Lando Norris has revealed how he tries to handle the media and deals with social media speaking to the High Performance Podcast.
The McLaren ace is in his fourth year in Formula 1 and has learned a great deal on and off of the circuit in that time.
Of course, on-track he has become one of the brightest talents on the grid, whilst off of it he has a loyal following on social media, with him proving one of the most popular drivers of the current crop.
He, like any other top sportsman, though, has had to deal with comments getting twisted and social media criticism, which he reflected on when speaking to Jake Humphrey on the High Performance Podcast.
Norris was asked about a time where he stated that Lewis Hamilton should win races because he is in a Mercedes was blown out of proportion, before then saying about how he deals with that side of F1.
"That's what it was. It was like, it's a great car kind of comment.
"Then it gets twisted. Everyone in the world's thought about it. But just me saying it in an interview is was what changes all of it.
Formula One F1 - Pre-Season Testing - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - March 12, 2022 McLaren's Lando Norris arrives before testing REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
"That's the tricky thing because like what I meant, I would never mean something to have bad intentions, like that's just not the person I am to really hate someone, but I would never mean it, especially in an interview when I have nothing against a person, Lewis or Mercedes, like what's the reason there's no gain for me to do so, that's just silly.
"So the fact people wanna put it across that way. And if people believe that, then they obviously just don't know me very well. But the obvious one is to start, I gotta be more careful with what I say here and there.
"But once you kind of get through it a couple times and you maybe say two or three things, people start to just kind of have like a bit more of a belief in you in the things you say, rather than you just saying one comment, which is just outrageous, and you gotta gain that little bit of respect by sometimes saying things that people don't agree with 'cause then you lose those few people which are just hating you for saying those kinds of things.
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"And I'm very happy to have people not following me anymore, if they kind of just wanna believe everything that they see in social media and things like that, because then they simply don't know who I am very well. So you're just gonna accept it a couple of times like you just gotta go through those hard times, being told off by the team and things like that. But you just kind of also realise that you have the right to say things that you want and not everyone's gonna agree with it.
"I never want people to think of me in a bad way or think that I think I'm miles better than everyone and I should have more right to do things and say things than other people. That's far from what I would ever believe and wanna lead to people to believe.
"It's hard 'cause I would always have the best intention, but just people understanding that is what was difficult."