Lando Norris talks F1 title bid: Pressure, evolution and Max Verstappen’s friendship

October 7, 2024

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Lando Norris talks F1 title bid: Pressure, evolution and Max Verstappen’s friendship

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Weaving toward the exit of McLaren’s air-conditioned hospitality unit in Singapore, Lando Norris couldn’t help but sneak a small square of chocolate cake left out on the side for the team’s guests.

“I’ve had better,” he deadpanned, mouth still half full, as he took a seat. His press officer noted that Norris last met with The Athletic for a one-to-one interview in April at the Japanese Grand Prix.

“Wow, early days,” Norris replied.

They were early days. In the six months since, so much has changed.

Norris, 24, hadn’t even won an F1 race then. Nor had he properly fought Max Verstappen on track. He’s since broken his victory drought, banished the cruel ‘Lando No Wins’ nickname, and gone wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen on multiple occasions.

He’s not merely an F1 race winner. Norris has become a championship contender, hunting down Verstappen as the season nears its conclusion and has all the momentum on his side. The gap has shrunk to 52 points with six races and three sprints to go. He’s the outsider, but there’s a chance.

Norris denied his life had changed despite being thrust into the spotlight of an F1 championship battle. “A lot of people might believe it has, but it hasn’t,” he laughed, wryly adding, “I still work at the weekends.”

But this exposure is new to Norris. There’s a different pressure. A higher cost for mistakes. And a demand for perfection that has only strengthened him. “It’s definitely helped me become a better driver and a more complete driver,” he said.

Chasing his first F1 crown and supporting McLaren’s bid to end its 26-year wait for a constructors’ title requires an evolution that is coming at just the right time.

No one has ever doubted Norris’ credentials as one of the brightest young talents on the F1 grid. But it wasn’t until this season, his sixth on the grid, that he could fully showcase his abilities at the front of the pack to mount a championship bid.

Before Miami, most in the F1 paddock had already written off both championships. Verstappen maintained his dominant, record-breaking form from 2023, and Red Bull’s pace advantage had only grown over the winter. McLaren struggled to maintain its late-2023 upswing, limiting Norris to one podium in the opening four races.

Miami changed everything. Some fortuitous safety car timing helped Norris score his breakthrough win from sixth on the grid. The upgrade package from McLaren — essentially a car overhaul — also made it the quickest team. Red Bull’s car struggles deepened, hindering even a driver of Verstappen’s greatness and casting doubt on his title defense. Now McLaren was the team to beat. And Norris was the man spearheading its charge.

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Norris demolished the field on Verstappen’s home turf in Zandvoort by more than 20 seconds. Three days after this interview, Norris did the same again in Singapore with a faultless, untouchable display, ebbing away further at Verstappen’s points lead.

This is all fresh territory to Norris. “Because of the position I’m in, championship-wise now, and have been for a while, I guess I’m witnessing different things and experiencing different things that I’ve not experienced before,” he said. He fought for championships in Formula Two and Formula Three. F1 is different. You can’t tell from his demeanor or tone, which remains as relaxed as ever. There’s not an ounce of added tension despite the heightened competitive stakes. But underneath his calm exterior, Norris is gaining more of an inner steel.

Norris finally solved his race start problems in Singapore last month, where he earned his third win. (Sipa USA)

“I’m working more, probably than I have done previously, on every area to try and improve and eliminate as many weaknesses as I can,” Norris said. It’s not that he wasn’t working on that before. “But because I feel like I’ve got to a point where I was very comfortable, and I’m quite comfortable and confident now with 99 percent of things, then it’s like, ‘OK, where’s the next big thing going to be?’

“Life has not changed. It’s just working in different ways to try and unlock more performance, simple as that, really.”

It’s led to an added focus on small yet crucial details — like starts. Before Singapore, on the seven occasions Norris had started first on the grid in F1, he’d lost the lead on the opening lap every time. He worked with McLaren to analyze his starts and first laps to understand why he kept dropping behind in the absence of glaring errors. Was there more he could do to control the clutch and throttle better when pulling away from the lights? To prepare the tires, or place his car better to block others? The reviews paid off in Singapore as he nailed the start en route to his runaway victory.

“We have been focusing on the execution of the start (and) the preparation of the tires. Lando himself, even the time we focus on start preparation during a weekend, is now more concentrated,” Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, said after the race in Singapore.

“You gain confidence, and you gain familiarity with starting from pole position and understanding even in terms of territorial defense, what you need to do, even to dissuade people from going (to overtake). So I think this is part of the journey, and it’s just good that we are now having to face this kind of opportunity.”

Norris also felt he’d benefitted from fighting more regularly against F1’s elite-level drivers, name-checking Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion. He’s able to learn the best way to battle them from their on-track engagements.

“They’ve experienced a lot more,” Norris said. “They’ve been in Formula One a lot more. But it’s more just experiencing situations and dealing with situations that I’ve not experienced. It’s not so much that (because) they’ve been driving a car for longer, they can drive it in a better way. It’s more just certain situations of when you’re racing people or you’re having to make decisions.”

And — after getting his wish — Norris now truly understands the unique situation of going against Verstappen, F1’s hardest racer.

Norris told The Athletic in Japan, “When I need to, and the time comes to race (Verstappen), I 100 percent will.” He made good on that a couple of months later in Austria when they experienced their first proper fight for an F1 win.

“That didn’t end very well,” Norris said with a resigned laugh.

Verstappen had completely controlled the race, but a slow pit stop and tire warm-up struggles entering the final stint let Norris claw his way back into the fight for the win. Neither driver gave the other much room, and Verstappen defended hard against Norris’ attacks. With seven laps to go, their cars collided. The stewards put more of the blame on Verstappen and gave him a time penalty, but he was still able to finish fifth while Norris retired.

Post-race, Norris was upset with Verstappen, though frustration cooled within a few days. He knew what he was getting into against the Dutchman, who has proven incredibly difficult to overtake throughout his F1 career, often pushing the racing rules to the limit.

“Max is probably the hardest guy to race on the track,” Norris said. “He’s probably one of the most aware in terms of situations. And helped by him being in this position for the last four or five years. For me, it’s still quite new.”

Austria was a learning experience for Norris, but one he looks back on with some positivity. “Things didn’t end the way I wanted them to,” Norris said. “And I still feel like on that Sunday, I probably won the battle of … taking the fight to him, although I didn’t win who came out on top that day.”

Norris and Verstappen remain close even as their title tilt heats up. (Clive Rose/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Both drivers quickly dispelled the narrative that the collision might test their friendship. Verstappen and Norris still travel together, most recently after two brief on-track fights in Azerbaijan, both of which were won by Norris as he beat Verstappen to fourth place. Their camaraderie remains strong even as they creep toward a full-blown championship fight.

But Norris is adamant their friendship would not influence his approach behind the wheel. “As soon as I put the helmet on, I hate everyone. That doesn’t change,” he said.

“A lot of people think because I get along with someone here, or because, I don’t know, just play on a (video) game with someone, that you’re just best mates in life, no matter what you do. That’s just nonsense.

“We do those things. We have similar interests. We play padel together, that kind of stuff. And I like Max as a guy, I think he’s a very genuine guy. But that doesn’t change anything when I’m on the track.”

If anything, Norris thought the fact he and Verstappen get along would only further fuel his hunger in the championship fight.

“I think the people you actually get along with more out of the track are the people you want to beat more when you’re on the track, which is the opposite thought to what a lot of people have,” Norris said. “They think because you’re mates there, you’re too nice on the track. I think it’s the complete opposite.”

Even with Norris’ momentum, the reality of actually beating someone so hardened in F1 title fights is a much bigger task.

Norris has not granted the idea of fighting for the championship too much attention. After his 20-second win at Zandvoort, he said it was “pretty stupid” to give thought to the title and that it is “not a question that I need to get asked every single weekend.”

His form has made it unavoidable. Norris has finished ahead of Verstappen in all four races since the summer break, cutting the lead from 78 to 52 points. With a better strategy at Monza and clearer direction over team orders with Oscar Piastri, and without some bad luck in qualifying in Baku, the gap could be smaller.

Verstappen still enjoys a healthy lead. If Norris were to win all six remaining grands prix, plus the three sprints, Verstappen could finish P2 each time and still clinch the title by a point. It’s not something Verstappen can rely on too much in a season that is so open — seven different drivers have won a race, the most since 2012 — and where point swings can be substantial at any time.

A maiden F1 championship may be possible, but Norris feels no extra pressure to perform. “I don’t feel like I’m going out now like, ‘Oh God, I have to do this because I’m fighting for a championship.’ I’m not thinking of it like that at all, honestly,” he said.

“It’s more just putting that little bit more pressure on making the right decisions at times, knowing that certain decisions maybe have a bit more meaning or can have a bigger meaning.”

McLaren has also been adjusting to life as a championship-leading team. Big points scores and consistency across two cars have eluded other teams, allowing McLaren to surge 41 points clear at the top of the constructors’ standings. It hasn’t been in title contention since 2012 and hasn’t won the constructors’ championship since 1998. For a team scrambling to get out of Q1 at the start of 2023, it has been a dramatic turnaround.

That has brought some growing pains and scrutiny from its rivals, as well as a need to address scenarios that weren’t previously considered, such as asking Piastri to support Norris in his title bid. Quite what that looks like remains unclear, but if needed, McLaren will make some tough decisions to give Norris every chance of beating Verstappen to the title.

Norris, notoriously self-critical, has also recognized his own need to improve at points. Entering the summer break, he felt he had made too many errors that meant he was not driving at the level expected of someone contending for a world championship. In Singapore, he was almost perfect, save for a couple of wall glances and Daniel Ricciardo’s fastest lap late on that denied Norris a first career grand slam (pole, fastest lap, win and leading every lap).

Form like that, combined with McLaren remaining the quickest team through the late-season car development push that will ignite in Austin, will give him the best chance of overhauling Verstappen at the top of the championship.

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Norris trails Verstappen by 52 points with six races left. (MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Norris’s entire life has been working toward this kind of season. This is his first chance to realize his dream of being F1 world champion, even if it remains a long shot. It’s easy to think why that could become all-consuming.

The way Norris thinks about the championship is not to think about it. “For me, the less I can think about it, the better,” he said.

“It’s hard when every question is basically just about that, you know?” he added with a laugh, admitting it is “normal and expected” for it to be a recurring topic.

“For me, it’s not trying to think of the bigger picture in a way,” Norris said. “By doing that, and just focusing on one race at a time, or what I have to do tomorrow, then Saturday, then Sunday, I’m not thinking, ‘I need a good weekend this weekend, so I can do this next weekend.’ It’s just stupid to think like that, I think.”

That way of thinking is something Norris said he worked on and has improved on, treating each race in the moment and “not caring about next weekend.” To him, the bigger gains he has made are on the mental side, given the quality of the competition.

“I’m definitely driving better now than I ever have,” Norris said. “You’re always adding to that side of it. But you’re getting to a point where more is done for the mental side and how you approach things, than actually driving the car two-hundredths quicker.”

Regardless of the outcome of this year’s title race, Norris and McLaren will enter 2025 among the favorites for the championship. It’ll be their first chance to start a season on equal footing to Red Bull, finally overturning the advantage that lasted for the past two years.

Until then, there is still a title to try and contend for, no matter how much of a long shot it may seem right now, given the points gap and the quality of Verstappen. For Norris, none of it is any reason to change his approach.

“I just go out and do what I do.”