Lando Norris admits he needs to “do a better job” of not giving Max Verstappen a hand at the start of races. Especially now that the Dutchman is a bona fide title threat again following McLaren’s double disqualification in Las Vegas.
Norris still leads the championship by 24 points from both Verstappen and team-mate Oscar Piastri and can win the title in Qatar this weekend by outscoring both by two or more points across the Sprint and Grand Prix. But he knows he’ll struggle to do that if he gives up the lead at the first corner like he did on Saturday night in Sin City.
Reflecting on that incident, which saw the pole-sitting Brit dive across track to cut off the Red Bull, only to overshoot the corner and drop to third, Norris admitted it was a “pretty embarrassing” mistake.
He said: “I need to learn from turn one and try to do a better job than I’ve been doing recently. You’ve got to be punchy into turn one. I was just a bit too punchy and that cost me. So that’s the way it is sometimes.”
That Norris took pole and finished second on track, before his disqualification, came as something of a surprise on a Las Vegas circuit which did not look to suit McLaren‘s car. The upcoming Qatar and Abu Dhabi tracks are likely to be much better for them, but Norris remains concerned about the improvements made by Red Bull in the second half of this season.
He said: “I know we won in Brazil, but we weren’t quick enough in Brazil relative to what Max was. They seem very good. Max is doing a very good job and the Red Bull car seems very quick and they are beating us.“I just hate getting beat, simple as that. I hate that they are quicker at the minute. We’ve got to try and step it up a bit. When you look at the pace over the last few weeks, they have been quick.
“When they don’t mess up qualifying, they will win the race, like they did in Las Vegas and Monza and other races. It’s tight. It can easily go our way and their way. We just have to do a much better job.”
Verstappen knows closing the points gap to Norris in just two race weekends will be tough but, even if his chase for a fifth consecutive title is in vain, feels this late-season charge will have long-lasting benefits.
He said: “We always try to just maximise everything that we’ve got. In Las Vegas we did that, and the upcoming weekends we’ll again try to win the race. At the end of Abu Dhabi, we’ll see where we end up.
“I’m very proud of everyone. We’ve had a really up-and-down season and tough times, but also really beautiful moments. We learned a lot throughout the whole season and that’s also very valuable for the upcoming years.”
