Lando Norris concedes he’s ‘not quite at Max Verstappen’s level’ – as McLaren star admits he needs luck to boost his fading world title hopes
Lando Norris has all but admitted he is not good enough to beat Max Verstappen to the Formula 1 world championship.
The 24-year-old’s candid admission came ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix, the fifth of the final round of the season. He is 57 points behind Verstappen, of which 146 are still available.
Mathematically, the McLaren man remains in contention, although the odds are heavily against him, after losing ground to the defending champions in last weekend’s race in Austin.
Norris admitted he will need a good dose of luck to prevail: “Max is the best in the world at that style of defending and attacking, and I’m competing against the best in the world. That’s why I have to be on his level, and I’m not quite on his level. It’s sad to say, but it’s probably the truth.
‘It’s an experience for me to get better.
Lando Norris has admitted that he is not quite at the level of his title rival Max Verstappen
Verstappen won from Norris in Austin and the Red Bull star leads the title race with 57 points
Norris claimed that he learns from Verstappen and admits that the Dutchman sets the standard
‘I learn from Max. No one can push it to the limit and understand what he can do better than him. About 99 percent of the time he is as on the limit as he can and correctly.
“He is at the level that every driver should have.”
Staying in California between races, Norris cut a remarkably relaxed figure as he spoke warmly about his closest friend on the grid with a candor that no other potential title challenger in recent memory would have considered while the championship was still alive.
Lewis Hamilton, for example, would never have let his guard down in this way. This is underlined by his reaction when he endured a terrible 2009 in a rotten McLaren. After taking an unexpected victory in Budapest, his first question was: ‘How many points am I away from the lead?’
Norris’s self-effacing analysis plays into the compelling narrative that, despite his speed, he lacks the killer instinct of a born champion.
The conversation turned to Verstappen’s aggressive – but fair – pass at the first corner in Austin, where Norris left the Dutchman too much space on the inside in the latest example of his vulnerability when starting on pole.
“There are things he does differently against a title rival than how he would treat other drivers,” said Norris. ‘It clearly didn’t matter to him in the first corner whether he ended up in third place. He was quite happy that Charles (Leclerc) won.
‘Max races the way he should race, and of course he’s right. It’s up to me to learn to drive around what he does.’
Norris, on fresher rubber, closed in on Verstappen in the closing stages and tried to regain the third place he lost at the start. Four laps before the end, in Turn 12, he tried to maintain the overtaking maneuver.
Norris’s self-effacing analysis contrasted with Lewis Hamilton’s approach to title fights
Verstappen made an aggressive but fair move to pass Norris at the first corner in Austin
He defended himself impressively against Norris, who was subsequently penalized by the stewards for his pass
Verstappen, who defended himself like a lion, gave no quarter when Norris pushed him out. Both went off track. Norris passed, but was deemed by the stewards to have gained an illegal advantage by completing the move on the wrong side of the white lines.
Despite his admiration for Verstappen, Norris insists he was treated badly by the five-second time penalty, which dropped him back to fourth place. McLaren has not let the matter rest and has filed a claim based on new evidence.
“Max only reached the top first because he took off the brakes,” Norris argued. “I still believe I was right in what I did.”
As for the future, even though the title is practically written off this year, Norris declared, “I want to be the one to come out on top.”
Not yet.