Lando Norris has insisted that McLaren‘s approach to the remaining races in 2025 doesn’t need to change despite Max Verstappen’s growing title threat in Formula 1.
Norris enters this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix with a chance to win his maiden championship, provided he scores two more points than Verstappen and Oscar Piastri.
The Briton harbours a 24-point advantage over his sole remaining challengers, but the gap would have been greater without McLaren’s double exclusion in Las Vegas.
That allowed Verstappen, who was victorious in Nevada, to gain 25 points on the McLaren drivers, leaving him less than a race win behind with two rounds remaining.
But while Verstappen lagged over 100 points in arrears before Red Bull’s late-season resurgence, Norris has stated that McLaren has never discounted the Dutchman.
“I mean, we’ve treated him [Verstappen] as a threat the whole year, even when he was a few more points behind,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week.
“Every briefing we had before every race, we always have our little team meetings. Every single race we treat him as a threat, because we know what he’s capable of, we know what Red Bull is capable of.
“Therefore, nothing changes now, because he’s still the threat; he’s always been through the whole year, so nothing changes from anyone’s side.
“From engineers, [to] mechanics, [to] myself, we treat it very normally. There’s no point trying to treat it any differently, because we’ve been doing a good job and I’m very happy with the job we’ve all been doing.
“We know what areas we need to do better; we know what things we need to improve on this year, next year, all the standard stuff, so I’m really trying not to treat it any differently, because there’s no point, nothing doesn’t need to be treated any differently.”
Norris mindset unchanged despite Las Vegas points loss
Norris also dismissed that the points swing to Verstappen that came with him losing second place in Las Vegas was a burden on his mind heading into this weekend.
“No, because the gap before was 24 and it’s still 24, so my gap in the lead is the same, nothing needs to change,” he addressed.
“I think we were still quick last weekend; we would have been even quicker without the issues.
“So, no, I think we know Red Bull have just been quick lately, so we expect them to be quicker this weekend, we expect them to be good next weekend.
“But there’s nothing that needs to change from anyone’s side, and, like I said, we’ve treated him and Red Bull as a great team and a great competitor the whole season.
“That just continues now, so no, nothing changes for all of us.”
Norris sees Piastri & Verstappen as equal title threats
And despite Verstappen overturning a 106-point gap to Piastri in the past seven rounds, Norris has contended that he views his rivals as equal threats in the title race.
“Both are the same, I think they’re both just as good as one another,” he contended.
“I know what Max is capable of and I think Oscar is capable of exactly the same as what Max can do.
“So, no, I think the advantage, both have pros and cons, both him being in a different team and Oscar also being in the champions team, so I think both have pros and cons.
“But each driver wants to fight for their own thing and prove that they’re the best.
“I think they’re both competitive, they’re both very strong, they’re both incredible drivers and I’m excited to give them a good fight on track.”
READ MORE – Why Lando Norris was ‘quite fine’ after Las Vegas F1 DSQ
Discussion about this post