Lando Norris wasn’t pleased with his winning margin in Formula 1‘s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, believing Max Verstappen would have beaten him had he started higher up.
Norris enhanced his standing in the title race with maximum points at Interlagos to open up a 24-point lead over team-mate Oscar Piastri, whose struggles continued.
The weekend also all but dispelled Verstappen’s outside championship chance, the Dutchman having dropped to 49 points behind Norris with three rounds remaining.
But while he and McLaren have put a stop to Red Bull’s revival over the past two races, Norris wasn’t as content with the team’s competitiveness compared to Mexico.
The Briton is certain that Verstappen, who recovered to an eventual third, possessed the pace to win without the set-up troubles that consigned him to a pit lane start.
“The car balance was difficult. I’m sure the others will say the same,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week. “But it’s a realistic thing to use.
“In terms of when I was a bit happier with the car balance last weekend, we won by 30 seconds.
“This weekend, we only won by 10 [seconds] and, you know, Max was coming at us quite quickly.
“With how quick he was today – yeah, probably would have won if he started higher up. But that’s racing.
“Not everyone puts it together, and it’s easy to make mistakes in the world that we live in. Again, we maximised this weekend for ourselves, and that’s all we have to do.
“So yeah, the pace was not on another level and we set our standards high, as a team, as we rightly should.
“So to win by 10 seconds – I’m going to sound like an idiot saying it – but yeah, we just wanted a bit more.
“I still had to fight the car a lot to win by those 10 seconds. So, just a little bit trickier than what I would have liked.
“But I’m still very happy with how the weekend’s gone, of course, and I’m very proud of the whole team and what they’ve been able to give me.”
McLaren relieved Red Bull relinquished late-race lead
McLaren boss Andrea Stella concurred with Norris’ assessment when questioned on Red Bull’s call to surrender the race lead with Verstappen’s third and final pitstop.
“First of all I was hoping [Verstappen would pit] because it made our life a little bit easier!” he remarked.
“Jokes apart, today the level of degradation was very high and at some stage I think the tyres just ran out of rubber.
“I think they knew at Red Bull that it would have been quite a significant gamble to go to the end with the same set and considering the fact that they had a new Soft to put on, I think that was the right thing to do.
“I think staying on the point of Red Bull, today they definitely took advantage of having new tyres, new Medium, new Medium, new Soft.
“But at the same time they showed a performance and a pace in the race that is meaningful.
“Without the situation yesterday in qualifying, I think Verstappen would have been there for the victory.”
Norris backs Verstappen to challenge in remaining races
And Norris, who now doesn’t have to win another race this season to claim the championship, is expecting Verstappen to be a contender across the last three rounds.
“I’m sure he’s going to be a threat in terms of races, and you never know with the championship,” he cautioned.
“So it’s pointless trying to guess and come up with these things.
“He’ll be a threat – he always is. He’s always there, he’s always fighting, and I’m sure he’ll fight to the end. So I look forward to it.”
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