Lando Norris admits McLaren F1 WEAKNESS in Max Verstappen title fight

Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, 2024, Photoshop, Social — Photo: © IMAGO

McLaren

Norris admits McLaren WEAKNESS in Verstappen title fight

Norris proved to be the closest challenger to the Dutchman this season

Simmey Hannifin Donaldson F1 Editor

Motorsport journalist covering F1 since 2024

Monday 25 November 2024 13:58

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McLaren Formula 1 star Lando Norris has admitted that his team faced a big weakness in challenging Max Verstappen for the 2024 drivers' championship.

After a dominant start to the season for Red Bull and Verstappen, upgrades to the McLaren car thrust them into contention at the very front of the grid, and eventually, Norris emerged as a potential challenger to Verstappen's crown.

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That challenge is now over, however, after Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix over the weekend, with P5 being enough to do so thanks to Norris' sixth-place finish.

Throughout Norris' championship challenge, McLaren have been the subject of plenty of criticism for some of their poor strategic thinking, whether it be in regards to team orders, or a lack of them, or pit stops.

Max Verstappen is now a four-time world champion

Lando Norris proved to be the closest challenger to Verstappen in 2024

Norris admits McLaren mental weakness

Now, after missing out on the championship, Norris has reflected on his title challenge, admitting that he did not expect to be in contention in 2024.

"I didn't even expect to be in the title fight. I think I was happy with just how calm I was, how focused I was," Norris told Sky Sports.

"There's definitely more pressure. There's more eyes, there's more nerves. There's more demands on me making sure I go out and don't mess up, don't make a mistake in the race, stay in the race, don't get taken out. You have to drive better when you get to that point and I feel like I have.

"Since Zandvoort, I feel like I have done close to a perfect job. Always things I could have improved on but I feel like I have done a good job, especially this second half of the season."

Lando Norris has won three grands prix in 2024

Whilst Norris claimed that the second half of the season was strong, he did admit that he and his team did have a key weakness in the first half of the campaign - they were not mentally prepared to fight with Red Bull.

"The first half, I don't think I was, or we were as a team mentally ready to be like 'Oh, now we have to fight against the big boys and execute perfectly'," Norris added.

"As much as we would like to believe we were ready, we weren't and we paid the price a little bit.

"But, also it was us that was there fighting Max, no one else."

On the upside for McLaren, they do lead the constructors' championship with just two rounds of the 2024 season to go.

Ferrari are just 24 points behind, however, whilst Red Bull are not mathematically out of it yet despite being 53 points behind at this stage.