Lando Norris won his first Grand Prix in Miami at the start of May and is now contending for wins on a regular basis. The MCL38 is the strongest car McLaren have provided since his debut.
A fortnight on from his Miami victory, Norris finished just 0.7 seconds adrift of Max Verstappen at Imola, having reeled him in during the final stint. In Canada last month, he and McLaren missed the chance to win after a split-second strategy mishap.
Norris was leading the race when the safety car came out following Logan Sargeant’s crash. Verstappen and George Russell were able to leapfrog him in the pecking order after pitting earlier.
In Barcelona, the 24-year-old bagged his first pole of the season and just the second of his F1 career. But a poor start proved costly as he fell to third and surrendered the initiative to Verstappen, who won despite having an inferior race-day package.
Then came his dramatic collision with the Red Bull driver in Austria last weekend. It marked the moment when the competition between the two became a genuine rivalry.
Norris was trying to pass Verstappen for the win in the closing stages, but the lap-64 contact ended in his race. The stewards handed the world champion a 10-second penalty for the incident.
Lando Norris accepts he’s not as good as Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton
Speaking on F1’s Beyond the Grid Podcast, Norris admitted he’s not yet reached the level of Verstappen, or indeed Lewis Hamilton. The Dutchman has won the last three titles and put together the most dominant campaign in F1 history last year.
Hamilton, meanwhile, is struggling in 2024. He trails Russell by 26 points, having been outperformed by his Mercedes teammate in the vast majority of meaningful sessions.
But the 39-year-old remains the most successful driver in F1 history. In addition to his seven world championships (the joint-most alongside Michael Schumacher), he’s won a record 103 Grands Prix.
Norris believes their superiority is twofold. First, they’re better able to extract the fine margins, and second, they deliver at ‘every single race’ for multiple seasons.
“I don’t think I’ve proved myself enough,” he said. “As a total driver I don’t think I’m at the level because they’ve been performing at this level for way longer than I have.
“It’s just as a package. It’s just those little mistakes. It’s the one or two metres. It’s the hundredths of a second here, or the hundredths of a second there. It’s a collection of small things put together.
“And then there’s the point of doing it every single race for a whole season, and then doing it for multiple seasons. That’s the bigger part of the whole thing.”
Eddie Jordan tells Norris what he must learn from Verstappen crash
It’s worth stressing that Norris has competed in 115 Grands Prix, while Verstappen is approaching his 200th and Hamilton is nearing 350. They have a clear advantage when it comes to experience.
But Norris has now gone through a formative moment in his career by coming together with a championship rival. And his response will be a telling indication of his maturity as a driver.
Eddie Jordan says the 24-year-old needs to learn that Verstappen is a ‘bear’. In future, he must be better prepared for the aggression that he’ll face.
Norris launched a cheeky dig at his adversary in an interview ahead of the British Grand Prix, but he’ll understand that Verstappen won’t change his approach. He may revisit the Red Bull star’s battles with Hamilton back in 2021 as he tries to determine the best countermeasures.
The post ‘Don’t think I’ve proved myself’: Lando Norris names two F1 rivals he’s not at the same level as yet appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
