Lando Norris’s championship chances never recovered from the setback they suffered early in the season when McLaren’s car was less competitive, says team principal Andrea Stella.
Max Verstappen clinched the title in Las Vegas last weekend with two rounds to spare, having built up a 63-point lead over Norris, his closest championship rival.Norris lost 53 points to Verstappen over the first six rounds alone. McLaren introduced a significant upgrade for the MCL38 at that round in Miami, where Norris claimed the first victory of his career. Despite closing to within 44 points of Verstappen at one stage, he was unable to prevent his rival taking the championship.
Stella praised Verstappen, saying he deserves a place among F1’s greatest champions. “He’s a fantastic driver, one of the best in the history of Formula 1,” the McLaren boss told Viaplay.
“He’s been so consistent this season, even when the car wasn’t the best car. A very deserved champion in 2024 in Max Verstappen. Congratulations to him and congratulations to Red Bull who supported Max in this quest.”
But Stella believes both his drivers have the potential to win the championship in the future, if their car is competitive enough across the whole season.
“We are proud that we tried to contend the championship with Lando. We tried until we could. We lost too many points at the start of the season because the car wasn’t competitive enough.”
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Norris has scored points in every grand prix this year apart from at the Red Bull Ring, where he was classified 20th after stopping in the pits with damage following a collision with Verstappen. His next-lowest finish, eighth place, came at the second round in Jeddah.
“After we got in with competitive material from a car point of view, actually, we stayed on a similar trajectory as Max, confirming that we have the material that can compete for the drivers’ world championship in the car,” Stella continued.
“Above all, we have a driver that can compete for the drivers’ world championship in Lando, and certainly in the future in Oscar [Piastri].”
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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
Femke
27th November 2024, 12:16
This but also because of strategic errors , or too much commercial presure, where they prioritized their second driver over norris, costing him a bulkload of points
notagrumpyfan
27th November 2024, 13:47
I’ve never seen them prioritising Piastri.
Other side of that coin; of course they could’ve started team orders earlier.
Femke
27th November 2024, 17:20
They did use team orders, prioritising piastri so he could get a win.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
27th November 2024, 17:24
This was discussed extensively at the time; but ultimately, McLaren only had to use team orders to put the drivers in the right order after their own strategic misstep.
SPArtacus
27th November 2024, 23:26
We’ve been over this ad nauseam. McLaren barely cost Norris anything and no one gets a perfect strategic season from their team. Even if you blame McLaren for not swapping in Monza, not cheating Piastri of a victory (Norris is never getting past Piastri in Hungary of all places if they had pitted the drivers in standard order) and their tire choice in Silverstone, you’re at, oh wow, about 15 points.
Lando fans need to come to grips with reality. Lando is amazingly fast, but this was one of his worst seasons. He really delivered the goods in past seasons, but I guess the pressure made all the difference this season. The fact he only has one more win than Lewis who is having one of his worst seasons ever and is in a car that has only been competitive on cold weekends (CAN, UK, SPA, LV), kind of says it all.
Stoo (@stewart51)
28th November 2024, 14:27
+1
M2X
27th November 2024, 12:17
Convenient excuse to absolve oneself from the successive mistakes made when the car was actually competitive.
Doh
27th November 2024, 14:18
The McLaren was never a clear best car in Norris’s hands like the redbull with max in the first races. After max stopped winning it was always different every weekend, and it was always close too which naturally will mean sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don’t, just as sometimes max didn’t win when he had the better car in 2021. When you have the best car but it’s close you won’t always win, doesn’t matter what driver you are or what team
Also max has been outscored by lando since Austria which was a pivotal result for max, and that’s including Brazil too
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 14:48
Again I’d like to ask (wasn’t to you on other thread): which race did verstappen lose in 2021 when he had the clear fastest car, not just a case of exact performance as the mercedes?
I can’t find any, and obviously stuff like exploding tyres, being taken out by others don’t count.
Doh
27th November 2024, 15:10
The point about 2021 was when the cars are/were close, not when clearly better.
Doh
27th November 2024, 15:17
Again I may have not explained right. But when I say clear best I mean a step above. When I said best but close I meant when it’s marginal.
Different parts of this season were different. For example before Miami. Then between Miami and Austria. Then after Austria
As I said somewhere else here, it seems like most people heard someone say Miami and decided that the McLaren suddenly became a much better race car since then. I believe it was Austria.
Since Austria lando has outscored max. And even if lando had won all the races between Austria and Miami he would not be ahead in the title right now. And it’s those races that I don’t believe the McLaren was the clear better race car than the redbull, as the echo chamber now seems to think it was. It was close and marginal those races
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th November 2024, 1:55
Well, in 2024 ofc there were those races, miami and austria mclaren only looked clearly better in the last stint, not better earlier on, and I also wasn’t convinced about imola and spain for example.
Yes, about 2021 it was open for misinterpretation, as you said some races verstappen didn’t win despite having the better car, and when you say better I tend to think it has to have a bit of an edge, otherwise I’d say evenly matched, which is how I’d consider bahrain 2021 for example.
SteveP
27th November 2024, 18:56
Adrian Newey reckons the RBR was the fastest for the majority of the season.
Now, you’re free to disagree with the guy that designed the car and saw all the data, but I’m prepared to take his word.
SPArtacus
27th November 2024, 23:29
He meant his chassis was the fastest. Or do you think one of the most competitive designers in history is in the habit of saying “I gotta admit, that Mercedes was just a better car.”?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th November 2024, 1:51
Newey is biased in this context, because he designed the car; toto wolff for example said the merc was faster.
How comes merc won the constructor’s championship, how comes bottas outscored perez? How comes hamilton’s potential points that were under his control were higher than verstappen’s potential points? Hamilton would’ve had at least 30 more points without baku mistake and horrible monaco weekend.
M2X
27th November 2024, 15:41
Norris only converted 2 pole positions into wins.
Mclaren messed up massively in Monza and Hungary with the drivers.
They messed up strategy wise in Belgium and Brazil.
Statements like this one and previously “We never went for the WDC” sound incredibly unprofessional and are indicative of a failing company culture for a sports team.
This all sounds like a cop out, a refusal to selfreflect, and trying to blame things out of once’s control.
They really need to do very rational analysis of what went wrong, why and how to improve it. The car should have been ready to compete in March, not in May in Miami. Strategists need to do a better job, management needs to take more control when its essential and Norris needs to improve.
Because with the mentality presented in this article you are never going to win.
SPArtacus
27th November 2024, 23:39
@Doh / RE: Fastest car
Do the math:
-Max had 7 poles in the first 7 rounds
-He then had 1 pole over the next 12 rounds
-After R7 Lando had 7 poles + 2 wins (vs 1 pole for Max) and there was more than one quali in which Norris blew it and was sulking because he knew he had had the fastest car
Unless Max suddenly forgot how to be the best qualifier in F1 (honorary mention to Leclerc), well not sure what else I can tell you.
Mike
28th November 2024, 13:14
Mclaren wasn’t clear best in Singapore, Hungary, and Zandvoort?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 12:17
Fully disagree with the headline, there’s been a stat pointed out that verstappen still outscored norris since miami, so this doesn’t excuse norris’ mistakes since then.
David (@nvherman)
27th November 2024, 12:27
@esploratore1 you seem determined to blame Norris for all of the dropped points. I would argue that the points lost to Verstappen in Austria were as a result of Max choosing to collide with Lando rather than avoid the collision.
At Silverstone, McLaren shouldhave chosen to fit Norris’ brand new set of mediums at the final pit stop, given that the softs were always going to fade away.
I would also point out that Hungary was a result of very dubious team orders that favoured Piastri over Norris, which should never have been issued, as Oscar was certainly not on the same pace as Lando, even though he had newer tyres on.
Edvaldo
27th November 2024, 12:48
Piastri took the lead on that race on merit, that’s why they issued orders to favor him later.
Norris lost the lead in the first lap 6 times out of 7 starting from pole. That’s a great way to lose a race that was supposed to be easy.
Max started on pole 8 times. He didn’t lose the lead at the start of a race not even once.
If Norris had converted his superiority into results, this championship would still be on.
Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
27th November 2024, 14:19
Completely ignoring that when Max had the fastest car it was by a wide margin, and when McLaren had the fastest car, in all but 1 or 2 races, they barely had any advantage over either RB, Ferrari or Mercedes.
McLaren never had that much of an advantage – it was hyped because just having anyone that could be seen as genuinely quicker than RB after last year was fantastic, but it was definitely exaggerated.
Edvaldo
27th November 2024, 14:25
You don’t need a wide margin to win a race from pole, where did you take that from?
You only need to be the fastest and in control of things. And Norris was the fastest in Spain, Hungary, Italy (and with his teammate starting 2nd) and was fast enough in Brazil with Max starting way from the back.
And for the record: Max didn’t have a “wide margin” over Norris in Spain and Canada and won those anyway. What do you say about that?
The only thing you’re doing is blaming Mclaren for not giving him a car to win by 20 seconds every race as if that was mandatory for someone to win a race. It isn’t.
Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
27th November 2024, 21:49
If you’re car is clearly faster it’s a lot easier to win, such as Max had initially this year, coupled with him being a great driver with a lot of experience winning – only 1 trait of which Norris has at this point in time. You stating somehow it’s just as simple to win when your car is faster by 1s or 0.1s per lap is delusional. I didn’t state you need a wide margin to win, but it’s clearly easier to. It’s pretty simple – if other cars are closer to your pace, it’s easier to lose points to them. If you think that’s somehow not true…
McLaren have consistently been poor to get off the line, which is one area that McLaren need to work on with both their drivers – both with how the car does the 2nd phase and also how aggressive the drivers need to be, as there were definitely times when Lando was not forceful enough.
Lando and McLaren made mistakes, but it’s unrealistic to say they lost a title they easily should have had, which is the suggestion of a lot of the Norris-haters on here.
Edvaldo
28th November 2024, 12:43
@Carl Parker
There’s nothing delusional about my statement. Dozens of WDCs were decided by who did the best work between 2 drivers with similar machinery and here you are telling me that Norris shouldn’t have won more races because his car wasn’t superior enough.
If he were good enough, that superiority would be enough. It turns out he isn’t. He needs more than that.
Even Piastri could steal a win in a very close race under pressure from Leclerc after a surprise overtake, but Norris could only win 2 races in which he was by far the fastest on track and left Max 20 seconds adrift, something even Lance Stroll could’ve done.
Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
28th November 2024, 13:26
As it appears you never actually read, or want to understand my points I’ll not try further with you.
I’m not saying what you’re claiming I am, nor are you making any reasonable point that could be defended in a logical way. By your logic the fact a driver wins a couple of races by 20 seconds when they had the best car means they should have won far more races and the WDC easily, which is obviously nonsense.
Edvaldo
28th November 2024, 13:51
I mentioned Canada and Spain here, two races in which Max wasn’t cruising. He seized the opportunity and took both home.
Why didn’t Norris win any of these again? Both could be his, as could Silverstone in which he was the one leading before the final round of pit stops. Or Brazil in which after he cleared Russell, he opened a 3-second gap in a lap and a half, so obviously he had the pace.
Stop making excuses pal, you’re not convincing anyone. Norris should’ve won more races, it’s impressive that he didn’t.
Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
28th November 2024, 21:34
At last we can agree, yes he should have won more races. I never said at any point he shouldn’t have.
Doh
27th November 2024, 14:20
Even if Perez had the better start, redbull would have made sure max finished 1st in that situation.
Momentum is very important and easily overlooked
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 14:50
I’m not determined to blame norris for ALL dropped points, I remember they lost some through bad strategy calls.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 14:53
But agree with edvaldo about hungary, piastri deserved to win that race and norris was only ahead because of mclaren giving him the favourable strategy (undercut), silverstone no doubt about the tyres, was one of the calls I was talking about, monza I think was also a bad call, letting them race on lap 1, they basically increased the chance of a ferrari win massively by letting leclerc pass norris due to fighting with piastri.
Bob
28th November 2024, 0:43
You’re assuming McLaren has been quicker since Miami which is blatantly false. Norris wasn’t even competing for the podium there, he only got that win out of sheer luck with the safety car.
Realistically, McLaren have only been faster since Hungary, maybe Silverstone (hard to tell due to the conditions). In that 7-race period between Miami and Silverstone, Norris was only fighting for the win at 3 races, and realistically only doing so on merit in Spain. In Austria he was only fighting for the lead because Red Bull made a mistake during the pitstop ruining Max’s dominant lead. In Imola Max also built a dominant lead, yes Norris starting clawing it back at the end giving hope, but he wasn’t even able to get close enough to attack. That’s also partially due to strategy, realistically Red Bull could’ve pitted and would’ve been much quicker, but they prioritised track position and left Max out on dead tyres. It wasn’t due to pace.
Since Silverstone though, which is when McLaren were consistently quicker, Norris has outscored Max. Of course that won’t be the case if you include 7 races where they were slower though. That also ignores that a) Red Bull have been competitive with McLaren for many of those races and even quicker at a few and b) during that whole period McLaren has only been clearly quicker then everyone at Hungary and Zandvoort (Ferrari had better race pace at Singapore but screwed up qualy). Meanwhile, for nearly every race prior to then, Red Bull was untouchable. It’s much harder to outscore someone when they’re competitive with you and a bunch of others are taking points off of you.
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 8:19
If Max is driving the McLaren, he’d have been accused of having a dominant car for 75% of the season. I don’t like Max either. So, I get that it’s unpleasant to accept he’s easily the most difference making driver in F1 currently. Sure, he’s not some unbeatable god like some of his less grounded fans like to think, but however much of the time Lando did or didn’t have the best car, he was never going to beat Max. Even when he did have inarguably the best car he couldn’t make any ground on Max.
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 8:13
David keeps trying this line and never responds to people’s follow up posts / citing the facts because he knows that a) “the blame it all on Norris” claim is a red herring and b) both the data + the details of what actually happened on the track means he’s got nothing to come back with. It’s OK to be a fan of a driver and admit that, while they’ve been great in the past, they just had one of their worst seasons.
MGus.ai
27th November 2024, 17:10
Norris couldnt even beat his teammate, how was he supposed to beat Verstappen?
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 8:20
He easily beat OP. So, this is not a line of argument that helps your argument.
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 10:46
line of reasoning*
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
27th November 2024, 12:23
“Norris lost title because McLaren weren’t competitive enough early on – Stella”
Nice of Stella to defend Norris but it is simply not true. If championship started in Miami and ended in Las Vegas Max would still have been champion as over those 17 races + 4 sprint races he scored 293 points and Lando 282 points.
Norris didn’t become the 2024 driver champion due to too many mistakes by himself and also the team combined with the fact that Max has been extremely consistent in maximizing his scores each weekend with very few mistakes and even fewer that negatively impacted his championship chances.
So using 5 races of having a less competitive car as an excuse is a bit odd considering that in at least 10 of the next 17 races McLaren had the fastest car – they just failed to maximize those opportunities.
BMW P85 V10
27th November 2024, 12:39
And within those 5 races where McLaren was not competitive enough Max suffered a DNF so he couldn’t take profit of his advantage.
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
27th November 2024, 12:54
True which allowed Norris to read Max’s lead with 15 points – that is more than in any other race this season.
In 8 of the 22 race weekends Norris scored more points than Max, a total of 63 points.
In 14 of the 22 race weekends Max scored more points than Norris, a total of 126 points.
In 2021 it was 12 weekends for Max and 9 for Lewis including 2 race weekends in which a Mercedes driver caused a crash on first lap of the race (swinging 40 points in total).
Doh
27th November 2024, 14:39
Don’t see why everyone is saying Miami. I believe you are ill informed.
Austria was when redbull really started to struggle and McLaren up to that point was was fast in qualifying relative to the redbull but not as much so in the races. The red bull through the season too has consistently been better in the race. It’s like a few people shouted Miami and everyone decided to jump on the bandwagon.
Since Austria lando has closed the gap to max and that’s including Brazil.
People are really acting like Miami was a toggle switch when the McLaren became a clear best race car with which lando should have won every race lol.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 14:55
Well, miami was the first race where mclaren had the pace to win, and they were superior in the last stint.
MichaelN
27th November 2024, 17:25
McLaren brought a big upgrade to Miami that gave them race winning pace.
MGus.ai
27th November 2024, 17:11
COTD
Edvaldo
27th November 2024, 12:32
They can blame whatever they want now. It’s done and dusted already.
Fact is : when the car got better they did not get closer in the standings, so chances are, if they were fast since the first race it wouldn’t change a thing because Max is the better driver.
Doh
27th November 2024, 14:41
They did though the gap is currently about 20 points less than it was after Austria.
As I’ve said above Miami wasn’t some toggle switch which meant McLaren was the best race car. Internet hive mind strikes again. Austria onwards was when it really changed.
Edvaldo
27th November 2024, 14:54
Norris was very fast in Miami, but was out of position. The moments he was not held by someone, he was faster than everyone else other than Max. He was not going to win that race without the Safety Car but the pace was there. It was indeed the race their car came to life.
Max still barely won in San Marino and would win in Austria without that long pit-stop, after that, McLaren took the reigns.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 14:57
Mclaren had pace advantage in the last stint both in miami and austria; imola was still pretty competitive among the 2, but he was also closing in in the end.
Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
29th November 2024, 9:37
McLaren are generally faster on fumes than on full tanks – other teams are managing that balance better. It’s why McLaren also got a lot of pole positions this year, but people seem to think that when they get pole they should walk the race – that’s not how it works. Not quite as bad as Ferrari last year but the same general idea.
BMW P85 V10
27th November 2024, 12:35
If Norris had won the Championship Red Bull could easily have said that their car wasn’t good enough for last 3/4 of the season and everybody would agree with that. That’s why you just can’t agree with the explanation from Andrea Stella.
It was Norris’ Championship to win and he lost it. Any excuse will prevent him and the team from having a good look at what they (Norris as a driver & McLaren as a team) need to improve.
And it’s not just about swapping places. Swapping places shouldn’t be a factor at all for a driver who wants to be a WDC, because his most important opponent will always be his team mate. And Norris left to much on the table for his team mate to be considered as well.
Norris also didn’t perform well in any of the rain races. Even in Silverstone where Max was struggling with an unbalanced RB20 big time he managed to score more points then Norris. Same with Canada, and we now what happened in Brazil.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th November 2024, 14:59
Canada was on the team, not on norris; silverstone was also on the team, they had medium tyres that were perfect and didn’t use them.
Davethechicken
27th November 2024, 21:59
Esploratore I fear that is an oversimplification.
We don’t know the mediums would have performed better on Ham or Nor car in Silverstone. Because they worked for Max/Red Bull and their setup does not mean it was the same for the other cars. Max lost that race in the wet phase, if it had been dry it was a red bull canter to the win.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
27th November 2024, 13:03
It’s as ever a combination of factors rather a single cause. Yes, they weren’t competitive earlier on, but they failed to maximize their opportunities when they were. On the other hand they never had a big advantage over Redbull so it was very difficult to catch up anyway. I haven’t done the maths, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Redbull was on average the fastest car over the year, especially in qualifying. Dominant at the beginning and still very close to their rivals later on.
Doh
27th November 2024, 15:00
I agree. But I think from Miami to Austria everyone seems to think the McLaren was a better race car just because it was qualifying well.
It’s an overly simple view, that doesn’t take into account that it wasn’t untill Austria that the redbull started to struggle in the races and the McLaren was very good in comparison. Since then lando has outscored max and that’s including Brazil of course.
I don’t believe it’s true that the McLaren was suddenly the superior racecar from Miami onwards. Austria yes. Inbetween though it was close, when the cars are close sometimes you win sometimes you lose.
Not to mention for example Monaco which is a different type of track to normal and the Ferrari was clearly working well.
And since the majority of people can’t seem to think beyond singular ideas, let’s just note that even if norris had won all those races in-between Miami and Austria he still wouldn’t be ahead in the title (even though he’s outscored max since Austria)
Internet echo chamber has truck again though.
Jere (@jerejj)
27th November 2024, 13:14
Indeed & more specifically, Max’s points lead after the Chinese GP & several drivers taking points off each other subsequently are the two main factors behind the drivers’ championship loss.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
27th November 2024, 14:28
I have no idea how you lose something you never had.
Elvira
28th November 2024, 0:25
You’ve lost me
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
28th November 2024, 4:25
Lando had no title. So he can’t have lost it.
He failed to win the title.
Dex
27th November 2024, 15:30
McLaren was competitive longer than RB this year. Norris lost because… well, because he lost.
V. Chris (@vasschu)
27th November 2024, 16:24
I really would like to see Ferrari walking out with the WCC.
First, because I support Ferrari, but even more so, to see what all the McLaren press mumbling will be.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
28th November 2024, 6:45
I’d like to see that too, except that comes with the maximum balance of performance penalty.
I’ll take a McLaren win then Bahrain Sovereign Wealth Fund sack Zak after 6 races next year.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
27th November 2024, 16:37
No he didn’t.
He lost because when the Red Bull was the strongest car, Verstappen got the strongest results possible – but when the McLaren was the strongest car, Norris failed to get the strongest results available. His inability to convert pole positions into wins arguably was a significant nail in the coffin and Verstappen’s performance in Brazil (another massive opportunity for Norris that he failed to convert into an advantage) sealed it shut.
Mog
27th November 2024, 19:15
Agree.
The media should have left Norris alone and let him race without hyping him up, the pressure got to him. Which only just demonstrates that he isn’t a WC, despite being fast enough to win races.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
28th November 2024, 4:29
I am in agreement.
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 6:37
Whatever you need to cope yourself to sleep at night. Max had the faster car. 7 poles in a row to start the season. 1 the rest of the season. Lando had 7 poles/2 wins and admitted to flubbing other qualis where he should have been on pole. But it was Max who had the better car.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
28th November 2024, 6:51
Nah I want to see one year with Zak being told to go out back and fleece investors, Stella do the full range of facial expressions for TV from ecstasy to utter despair prior to the race then look knowingly at screens and engineer just shut up and do as told. Then! all Lando hears is Blue Danube Waltz all race. If he can’t get it done then I’m afraid even I can’t help him.
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 10:48
lol
David
27th November 2024, 17:28
I’m not going to be critical of Lando. I think he has driven well this season.
However Max has driven better.
And McLaren have fumbled situations because they are not used to being at the front. Whereas Red Bull have done a pretty solid job on strategy, even though they seem to have lost something in the engineering side.
Le Jimster (@lejimster82)
27th November 2024, 18:59
Norris just didn’t do a good enough job, the team made some mistakes also to be sure. Really McLaren have had the best car for most of the season. Max just did a better job when he had the fastest car. Obviously there were some coming together and dirty driving in Austria and Mexico that spring to mind, maybe that would have made the gap much smaller but Max probably would still have the edge.