Lando Norris challenged the claim he missed many chances to win grands prix before his breakthrough triumph in Miami yesterday.
The McLaren driver scored his first victory at his 110th attempt, leading Max Verstappen home by over seven seconds. Only seven other drivers competed in more races before winning one.Although Norris finished on the podium seven times last year, Verstappen’s domination of the championship meant he had few chances to win anything. He singled out the Qatar sprint race, which his team mate Oscar Piastri won, as one.
“There was one opportunity, and this was Qatar last year,” said Norris. “To win the main race was maybe a bit more of an ask. I don’t know what Max’s gap to Oscar and I was, like five [or] six seconds, I think. So you can’t go against that and put that ever away. But the sprint race was the loss.
“I don’t know if there was a main race that I’ve missed out on, to be honest. And that’s obviously the more valuable one, the one that means a lot more to you.
“So I kind of want to say I don’t think there was a Sunday where I’ve thrown stuff away. I’ve thrown away maybe a podium or a P2, but I think every opportunity where I’ve been there to try and take a win, I’ve been there.
“There’s a couple of times when I’ve been blocked to those opportunities. One was Singapore last year, and Carlos [Sainz Jnr] took it. And another one was Australia this year, where the two Ferraris were ahead. Apart from that, there wasn’t a Sunday.”
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Norris arguably came closest to winning at the Russian Grand Prix in 2021, where he lost the head by staying out too long when rain fell in the closing stages, handing victory to Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren driver said after that race people questioned whether he could produce a winning drive, but he has felt more confident about his chances this season.
“And as much as people like to continue to use that and say, even after China last weekend when I made a mistake in turn one on Lewis, a lot of people doubted that I could go out and win races and perform under the pressure of leading the race, especially with Max behind you and those types of things.
“But really this year I felt more confident than ever. I wasn’t thinking of these things. Probably last year I would have thought of it but this year I’ve been much better with just kind of keeping my mind focused and focusing on my job.
“I’m doing a good job. I’m fast and I’m executing things exactly how I want to do. I’ve improved on a lot of my weaknesses and all that hard work has paid off.”
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2024 Miami Grand Prix
- McLaren had superior pace before Verstappen’s damage in Miami – Norris
- Sainz ‘struggles to understand’ why he got penalty when Perez didn’t
- Alonso’s unusual brake problem and more unheard Miami team radio
- McLaren’s Miami upgrade success points to even stronger form in coming races
- Norris expects more wins this year and believes “100%” in 2025 title bid
senproman
6th May 2024, 16:14
I still don’t properly blame Lando for Sochi 2021. It was a 50/50 call from the cockpit as to how much rain there would be and how quickly it’d fall.
The team had the data and weren’t assertive enough in communicating things to Lando, nor did they make a quick enough call.
Granted, Lando didn’t seem like he had the spare capacity whilst duelling Lewis to listen to much at that moment anyway, but that then comes down to how decisive the team needed to be to make a call.
To me, listening back to radio comms for that race validates my thoughts on this one.
Spa 2021 was a missed opportunity for pole which, given the “race” that happened afterwards, would have given him a win – though best for that to have not been his first.
The only one I really hold him for is Monza. Given his pace over Danny for the rest of the year, this one was his to lose.
Maybe he didn’t want to take any risks vs. his teammate so ensure McLaren got the win with one of their drivers, but he’s usually one of the cleaner racers (as is Danny usually), so the fact he didn’t put himself in a position to do so at all was on him, imo.
Other than those races, he hasn’t really done anything notably wrong whilst in a position for the win.
Races like Singapore 2023 wasn’t really a missed opportunity as much as Carlos just driving insanely well.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th May 2024, 17:52
Ohh, forgot about spa indeed, norris is more known to throw away great quali results when he’s really fast up until that moment than races, and he was really good that quali and got caught up in a moment where the rain increased a bit.
Also no blame by me for russia, it’s all about the weather forecast the team had, norris drove excellently on the dry and on the wet, not letting hamilton by, it’s only really when he found himself on a full wet track on slicks he couldn’t do miracles, if mclaren had told him that was what’s going to happen he’d have most likely pitted, and also he was going for the first win, while hamilton was fighting for the championship, so when the prediction isn’t sure, it made sense hamilton played conservatively and norris aggressively.
I was also thinking about monza 2021 while reading the article, a notable omission by norris, but I wouldn’t say it’s as simple as outperforming ricciardo like he did all year: ricciardo was in top form that weekend and we know that an in-form ricciardo is capable of outqualifying verstappen and stealing his last opportunity to become the youngest pole sitter (mexico 2018), so yes, maybe he could’ve beaten him that weekend and got the win but he was a completely different ricciardo than the one he faced most of 2021 and 2022.
nix
6th May 2024, 19:12
I’m pretty sure I recall team orders in the Monza race Danny won.
senproman
6th May 2024, 19:52
@esploratore1
Yeah, I probably should be giving Danny more credit there.
I just wonder what clicked in Monza that didn’t click as much throughout the rest of the year.
Was it motivation from the car being so competitive?
Or a characteristic of the circuit that minimised his weaknesses with the car…
Or probably a mix of those factors and several others.
It’s just a shame for Lando that all that culminated on one of the weekends he could have won!
I imagine the omission of Monza by him was to not seem bitter about his team getting a victory, which is fair and consistent with how he tries to frame his relationship with McLaren.
David (@nvherman)
6th May 2024, 20:16
Weren’t there also team orders in place that day (Monza) which told Norris not to attack Ricciardo for the lead when they were running 1-2?
BasCB (@bascb)
7th May 2024, 7:58
Yes, @nvherman, the team told Norris very clearly to hold position and not even try to challenge his teammate but just bring home the 1-2.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
7th May 2024, 9:11
@nvherman @bascb To be fair, team orders or not, nobody was able to make passes in that race throughout the entire field, other than cars which were significantly out of position, so I doubt Lando could have got close enough to attempt a pass on an identical car even if he was slightly faster. I think there were almost no passes for position after the red flag other than the restart lap.
S
7th May 2024, 9:40
There were also team orders on many other occasions which went Norris’ way. And there still are.
Regardless, team orders at that point would not have changed how many points the team took home, and orchestrating changing the order of those drivers would have created more negative PR than positive.
Lewisham Milton
6th May 2024, 22:30
Blew the Putin Grand Prix, won the Trump one.
Yellow Baron
6th May 2024, 22:37
Man that shade of orange was so much better