Lando Norris and McLaren may one day reflect on the 2024 F1 drivers title race as biggest of misses for both the driver and the team. With no title since Hamilton won his maiden championship in 2008 and no constructors’ glory since the days of Mika Hakkinen a decade earlier, this year the Woking based team are tantalisingly close to a return to the top.

Whilst Verstappen is almost home and dry and ready to claim his fourth consecutive F1 title, McLaren now must concentrate on beating Ferrari who have closed in with race wins in the USA for Charles Leclerc and Mexico City for the departing Carlos Sainz.

Following the drive of the century in Brazil coming from P17 to win by a country mile in treacherous conditions, Max Verstappen is now 62 points ahead of Norris – ironically the same lead he had when Norris claimed his maiden victory ion Miami.

 

 

 

Norris snubs Red Bull in praise of Ferrari

Max merely has to finish ahead of his rival in papaya to clinch this year’s title but in the constructors’ race it is McLaren who have the edge now 36 points ahead of Ferrari. They in turn lead Red Bull by 13 points who have been forced to rely on Max to remain in the fight.

Sergio Perez difficulties this year mean he has just around 30% of his team mates total which has made all the difference given the Norris/Piastri and Sainz/Leclerc pairings are more evenly matched.

Speaking ahead of the Vegas extravaganza, Lando Norris outlines the team’s battle is now with Ferrari and not Red Bull, something the British driver noted way back in F1’s first visit this year to the States. “After Miami, I already said back then our challenge is not with Red Bull, it’s with Ferrari,” said Norris this week.

“I’ve said it many many times since, and it was very clear, for a long time, that Ferrari were going to be our biggest contenders over Red Bull.

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“No focus on Red Bull”

“So no, there’s almost no focus on Red Bull. There’s focus on executing our own programme, executing our own potential, the rest should take care of itself.”

Norris believes in Formula One, focusing on a rival is a pointless activity. The teams arrive at each of the 24 locations and concentrate on setting the cars up as best they can with historical data and there practice sessions, then the on track rivalry commences for qualifying and in the races.

“But people get hung up too easily on [other] teams,” he continued. “What can you do? How can focusing on a team change anything? It doesn’t. It’s just chat that people like to come up with and think about and envision.

“We knew our biggest competitor was going to be Ferrari for a long time, and it’s getting closer and closer to being just them against us.”

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McLaren on the brink

Lando explains its exciting times for the folks back at base in Woking given the historic status of McLaren in the pantheon of F1. The team is joint third in the all time honours list of constructors, but a win this season will move them ahead of Mercedes and alongside Williams with nine championships behind Ferrari who have sixteen.

Whilst it “is exciting for everyone,: Norris adds, “it also puts us under pressure. We can’t afford a one-point mistake now and at the end of the year, that could be all it takes.”

Lando Norris has had some epic duels with Verstappen this season which at times has been reminiscent of the battles the Dutchman fought with Lewis Hamilton during the historic 2021 F1 campaign. The first of the year saw the pair at the head of the race in Austria battling for lap after lap for the lead.

Norris was thwarted by his rival for lap after lap as the world champion repeatedly closed the door on Norris’ attempts at an overtake at turn three then on lap 64 of 71 matters came to a head.

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Epic battles with Verstappen

The McLaren driver decided to switch his tactics around and make the overtake attempt around the outside of turn three, but Max edged his RB20 to the left and the pair collided with each sustaining damage and punctures. Max was able to limp back to the pits and return to the race, but for Norris his day was over with terminal damage to his MCL38.

The stewards decided it was Verstappen who was to blame handing out a ten second penalty for his part in the incident which meant the world champion came home in just fifth place, some 15 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton.

With Max scoring ten points and Lando coming home with nothing, on reflection this was in fact a key moment in this years F1 drivers’ title race. Add into the mix that McLaren refused to switch their drivers in Budapest and Monza costing the British driver another ten points.

The smallest deficit between the pair in recent race weekends has been 47 points after the race in Mexico, but by braking his run of ten race weekends without a win in Brazil, Verstappen leads the McLaren driver by 62 points with 86 more to play for.

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Coulthard lists Max alongside Senna and Schumacher

David Coulthard has defended Verstappen’s driving despite much criticism in recent weeks that he’s too aggressive. The ex-McLaren driver cannot understand why the Dutchman is the attention of ‘hate’ given the glorious display of skills he brings to racing.

”But it amazes me that, just because someone maybe doesn’t like him as a person, therefore that clouds their judgment on the facts,” report PlanetF1.

“The facts are the guy is brilliant, he’s brilliantly fast. Yes, he’s controversial, but [Ayrton] Senna was controversial. Michael [Schumacher] was controversial,” Coulthard added. “I’m not really sure there’s ever been an uncontroversial, very successful person in Formula 1, maybe if you go back to the 1960s and ’70s, when they literally were taking their lives in their hands. But as old as I am, I wasn’t around at that time, so I can’t make a judgment on it.”

Coulthard has a sly dig at Lando Norris who described Max’s win in Brazil as “lucky, not talent.” “So his drive in Brazil was a lesson to all the other drivers. It was on another level. So if somebody can’t acknowledge that and go, ‘That was brilliant’, then they have a problem. They have a prejudice problem, which is what causes so many problems in the world, doesn’t it?”

Las Vegas will be a melting pot of competing interests, as fans and pundits alike hope for a repeat of the Lando/Max battles. Yet the real duel as Norris explained is between McLaren and Ferrari, with the Italians’ recent SF-24 upgrades working a treat in the dry in Austin and Mexico City.

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Vegas hype overrated as F1 insider reveals Verstappen’s new team mate

There should be no surprise at the hype surrounding the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix. Sin City is itself the very epitome of hype with its lavish themed super sized Casino hotels and neon lights glaring out from every angle.

For the first time in history, F1 has built its own racing facility having acquired an entire block of the city to host its paddock and start/finish grandstands. Fans registered to f1.com are regularly bombarded with emails about the event throughout the year and with a record number of hospitality seats to fill at a single F1 event, the sales pitch is relentless.

Vegas is set for a minimum run of ten years of Formula One weekends with the inaugural event in 2023 bringing in record receipts for the hotels, casinos and restaurants. Formula One eclipsed the financial benefits that even the super bowl brings to town and has turned around the city’s leanest financial period into one of bounty… READ MORE