Lando Norris said McLaren endured a “dreadful” weekend in Las Vegas as he lost the world championship battle to Max Verstappen.
The McLaren driver is now unable to overcome Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ championship after finishing one place behind the Red Bull in fifth in Las Vegas.As the only driver who had a hope of catching Verstappen prior to the weekend, Norris admitted that his rival deserved his fourth world title.
“I’ll start off by saying congrats to Max,” Norris said. “I’m disappointed that I’m out of it.
“Max deserved to win it. He’s driven a better season than we did and than I did. He deserved it more than anyone else. Max just doesn’t have a weakness.
“When he’s got the best car, he dominates. And when he’s not got the best car, he’s still just there always. Always there to make your life tough and difficult. He drove a very good year.”
Despite being the team to beat for most of the rounds after the summer break, McLaren never appeared to be in contention for victory over the Las Vegas weekend in the cool and dusty conditions.
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“This weekend’s been dreadful from us,” Norris admitted. “We couldn’t even put up a fight for Max, which is something I would have loved to have done today.”
Although rivals Ferrari are now within 25 points of McLaren in the constructors’ championship with two rounds remaining, Norris is confident McLaren can hold onto their lead.
“Every point’s going to matter, I think, by the end of the season,” he said. “Especially because Ferrari are performing very well.
“But I’m hoping this weekend’s a little bit more of an anomaly for us and we kind of return a bit more back to our usual the next few weekends.
“I don’t think our usual [place] is quickest, necessarily. I think it’s between us, Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull. No one knows who’s going to be on top next weekend or the weekend after.
“[It] makes our life tough and mine behind the wheel. But we’ll keep fighting. We have to. I think it’s very much alive still. I’m confident we can still do it. It’s just not going to be easy by any means.”
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2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix
- Vowles clarifies Colapinto’s claim he was concussed in Las Vegas crash
- Norris lost title because McLaren weren’t competitive enough early on – Stella
- Ferrari are now in their longest-ever championship drought
- F1 “was trying too hard” in first year at Las Vegas – Sainz
- 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend F1 driver ratings
Tristan
24th November 2024, 10:15
Ah Norris, ofcourse Max deserves it and ofcourse he’s a great driver. But Norris has to be able to expose, let alone recognise his weaknesses.
Kribana (@krichelle)
24th November 2024, 11:49
Understeery cars.
Chris Horton
24th November 2024, 12:52
Frankly he does have a weakness.
His wheel to wheel skills are lacking, there’s often contact. Whether that’s intentional or not, it’s still a weakness.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
24th November 2024, 22:43
I don’t think they are actually. I think he knows them, but just tries everything possible to find new ways to find loopholes in the rules.
By doing this, he has often found a way to benefit himself before being handed penalties, which still in the end has benifitted him.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
24th November 2024, 14:24
This is what separates Max from Hamilton, Leclerc or Norris. Norris had the best car since Miami this year, yet he only managed to win 3 races. Leclerc managed to put his Ferrari into tyre barriers in France, while leading with comfortable margin. And Hamilton? Easily lost over 20-30 wins by massively underperforming or choking and the latest one was in Las Vegas with Mercedes being as dominant as it was from 2014 to 2021, but of course he blew it in qualifying.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 0:15
If you’re talking france 2022, it wasn’t comfortable margin at all, he was in undercut range, was battling for position basically for half a second or so with verstappen, who had stopped before him, but yes, both him in that circumstance and hamilton here gave up their winning possibilities with a mistake in race\quali.
Agree norris was also underwhelming for the car he had.
Webbo (@webbo82)
25th November 2024, 8:44
Not the rage, then?