Lando Norris has established himself as one of the elite drivers in Formula 1 since his arrival in 2019. But a first victory continues to elude him.
Norris finished runner-up at the Chinese Grand Prix last time out – a record-extending 15th podium without a race win. It was a mighty performance as he split the pace-setting Red Bull cars, but the novelty must be wearing off.
‘Everyone in the paddock’ ranks him in the top tier of drivers alongside world champions Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso and Ferrari star Charles Leclerc. He, however, is the odd one out in a group that boasts a collective 198 race wins.
In Norris’ defence, he’s rarely driven the fastest car on the grid. McLaren haven’t finished higher than third in the constructors’ championship since his arrival.
And in the ground effect era specifically, Verstappen has established a near-unbreakable stranglehold. Since the beginning of 2022, the Dutchman has won 38 out of 49 races.
Norris has finished second seven times in that period, but Verstappen has often been in another league. There was a potential opening at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix as Red Bull uncharacteristically struggled, but he ended up finishing just eight-tenths adrift of the victorious Carlos Sainz.
Looking further back, Norris failed to convert his one and only career pole position to date at the 2021 Russian GP after mistakenly opting to stay out during a late spell of rain. And he also trailed teammate Daniel Ricciardo in a McLaren one-two at Monza that year.
Lando Norris picks out one race where he should have beaten Max Verstappen
In an interview with The Athletic, Norris says there’s only one weekend where he feels he truly ‘messed up’ a shot at the win. And it wasn’t Singapore 2023 or either of the aforementioned 2021 Grands Prix.
Instead, he pointed to last year’s race in Qatar. McLaren were rapid that weekend, with Oscar Piastri triumphant in the Sprint.
However, Norris was only able to qualify 10th for the full-length race after running wide in Q3 and seeing a front-row lap-time deleted. He recovered to third on the Sunday, but there remains a sense of what might have been.
“Qatar is the only place where I was like, this one I messed up, and deep down I know,” he said. “I should have won, simple as that.
“I’ve always been honest. I know people are like, ‘Well, why didn’t you win then?’ But I should have won because I was quick enough, and my one mistake that I made – well, two – were both in Q3, and both put me out.
“But I was quick enough. Obviously, Oscar went on to prove that [our car] was capable of winning. So yeah. If I think of it, if I didn’t make a mistake, and I know you can say that about many situations, then I should have made the most of that opportunity when it was there.”
Lando Norris suffers injury ahead of Miami Grand Prix
There was a two-week break in the calendar between the previous round in China and this weekend’s race in Miami. Norris returned to Europe and attended a boat party in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam.
While there, he suffered a facial injury that required a couple of bandages. According to Planet F1, the Briton cut his nose on some broken glass.
The wounds certainly won’t threaten his participation in Miami and shouldn’t hamper his driving either. Norris is gunning for a third podium in four races and will hope to put more pressure on Verstappen and Red Bull with the aid of an upgrade package.
McLaren were worried about how they’d fare heading to Shanghai but ended up out-pacing Ferrari. That will give them confidence that they can perform even on ostensibly weaker circuits.
This is the second of two back-to-back Sprint weekends, with Norris looking to repeat his heroics. He bagged pole position for the 100km dash last time out after a dazzling qualifying lap in the wet, but tumbled down the order after a mistake at turn one.
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