Lando Norris has denied that Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s continued advantage in Formula 1 is “concerning” – but that is not a view shared with one rival driver.
Having pipped Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to his maiden title in 2021, Verstappen has been unopposed since F1 returned to ground effect cars three seasons ago.
Verstappen has utilised Red Bull’s dominance to rise to third on the all-time wins list with a total of 55 victories and looks poised to win a fourth consecutive title.
Red Bull had triumphed in all but five of the previous 44 races and has opened the latest campaign with Verstappen fronting consecutive 1-2 finishes in the RB20.
Norris, who is the other driver to lead a lap across the opening races in 2024, believes that Red Bull’s ongoing dominance should come as no surprise to onlookers.
Asked whether Verstappen’s winning margin in Bahrain was concerning, Norris said: “No, I don’t think it was concerning at all honestly. I think yeah considering how much we’ve still have been able to close the gap.
“Considering you know that they spent a lot of time developing and making a new car for this year, I’m pretty happy with how close we [McLaren] were to Red Bull.
“Even in qualifying you know it wasn’t like he had an easy one and was that convincing. So I’m sure they are still learning about the car, it’s a very different concept they have.
“But yeah it’s one that I think everyone should expect you know they started their development on that car a long time before everyone else so you’re not surprised at all but actually you’re surprised at how close you were and how close a lot of teams were.
“Even when you look at Carlos [Sainz] relative to Sergio [Perez in Bahrain] and if Carlos wasn’t stuck behind Sergio in the middle stint like he was, the gap wouldn’t have been probably even as big. So yeah I think signs of hope for everyone I would say.”
However, Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas, who was with Mercedes during its run to eight consecutive titles, disagrees with Norris, arguing that one-team dominance is an issue.
“It’s been quite a clean sweep for the last two races for Red Bull and Max, so it’s a bit concerning,” Bottas contended.
“Obviously, it doesn’t change our focus and our battles on track but for the whole wide world, it could be a bit like last year. But let’s hope things change during the year.”
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner had assessed that the chasing pack would close on the Austrian outfit under the third season of the latest regulations.
But Verstappen was 25.1 seconds clear of the nearest non-Red Bull car – Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari – in Bahrain, while that gap stood at 18.8s to Charles Leclerc in Jeddah.
When Horner’s previous comments about convergence were put to him following the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, he retorted: “Well, the cars did converge because Checo [Sergio Perez] was eight seconds or nine seconds behind his team-mate at the chequered flag, so it was a very strong team performance today,”
“It’s great to see RB20 performing very strongly at another type of venue, another surface, another street layout. I think Melbourne will be different again.
“It’s going to take four or five races to get a clear picture, but again a very strong team performance today and both drivers did an exceptional job.”
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