LANDO NORRIS feels the best version of himself ahead of his Formula One title defence, but admits there is “quite a bit” to improve with his McLaren car.

Norris dethroned Max Verstappen to win his maiden drivers’ world championship last season after a rollercoaster year where he battled with various internal doubts.

The 26-year-old is full of confidence after he handled the pressure to claim the crown, but he acknowledged there is work for his team to do in order to compete with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull in next month’s opener in Melbourne.

“At the minute, we’re a little bit off, so to match the race pace of some of the others, we have to push a bit more and then we have more degradations,” Norris told a press conference in Bahrain.

“I would love to [win], but I don’t think there’s like a responsibility. Always in life I’ll do my best to defend it and continue it, but it’s a new season with loads of new challenges.

“It’s not as simple as just continuing from last year and saying it’s the same thing again. You know at the minute we have to improve the car quite a bit if we want to compete a bit more to be confident for the first race, but I feel confident.

“I feel better than I’ve ever done. Certainly after last year in winning the championship, that’s given me the confidence, so it’s reassuring to know that I’ve done it once and therefore I believe I can do it again.

“That’s a good thing, but it’s a long season and I’ll make sure I do my part. Together as a team we’ll make sure we give ourselves the best opportunity to do it again.”