McLaren’s Lando Norris has denied that perceived errors in his battles with Max Verstappen in 2024 have created “doubt” in his Formula 1 title credentials.
Norris, together with a resurgent McLaren, took on the mighty Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship in 2024.
Ultimately, Norris fell short and clashes with Verstappen at the Red Bull Ring, the Circuit of the Americas and Mexico City were noteworthy flashpoints in the 2024 title battle.
All three of those moments saw Norris come out second-best and drew criticism from certain sections of the F1 circus.
However, Norris said those “harder moments” have taught him how to improve rather than shake his confidence.
“Honestly, it’s probably the harder moments, which are the ones you learn the most,” Norris explained after taking his fourth win of the year at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“So it’s kind of true what people say. But those harder times, my battles with Max, that kind of thing, certain other cases throughout the season, you know.
“If I go back to Austria. Silverstone.
“You know, there are just some along the way and some have different reasons, but… None of them are necessarily ones which have made me doubt myself any more.
“This season’s been my best season from a performance [point of view], like personally.”
Norris has learnt to ‘believe’ he can fight for 2025 F1 Drivers’ title
Norris’ fourth win of the year in the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP confirmed he was best of the rest in 2024.
After wheel-to-wheel clashes with Verstappen and having a quartet of GP wins under his belt, Norris has started to “believe” he and McLaren can fight for next years title from the get-go.
“I think the one thing I’ve learned this year is probably to believe in myself a bit more,” Norris said.
“I’ve certainly not come out on top as often as I would have liked in certain moments as a driver, you know, especially in my fights against Max.
“As much as it hurts sometimes, I’m probably happy about it now that I’m going to go into next season knowing that I can fight. And I know myself, and I know more and better than anyone what I need to improve on, where I’m not strong enough, where I’m strong enough.”
Lando Norris is ‘open to criticism’
Norris had his fair share of criticism in 2024, with detractors chiming in whenever he lost the lead from pole position, or arguing he wasn’t aggressive enough with Verstappen.
Still, the McLaren driver knows how much he’s developed in 2024, taking his first victories and he knows full well that he has room for improvement.
“I’m always open for criticism,” Norris said.
“But I’m the one who knows better than the others, right? So not in an arrogant way or a selfish way, but I know that I have to improve in a lot of areas and certain things.
“And I feel like I’ve already done that quite a lot in the last three, four, five races.
“I feel like I’ve delivered some very strong results.”
Norris has argued that he and McLaren arguably lost out on the Drivers’ title at the start of the season.
Verstappen and Red Bull started 2024 in a position of strength with the Dutchman winning seven out of the first 10 races.
McLaren, meanwhile, was a team that took time to get up to speed in 2024 with Norris’ Miami coming in round six of 24.
However, with McLaren spending the majority of the 2024 campaign with the strongest overall package, plus winning the Constructors’ Championship, Norris is confident he can fight from the outset next year.
“On the whole, next year is hopefully a year where I can go in and decide before the first race we’re going to fight for a championship,” Norris explained.
“We’ve not ever thought of that. We’ve not even had the feeling of it from a team perspective and also for me as a driver.
“So hopefully the next year is that year and we obviously have a lot of work to do.”
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