Max Verstappen agreed Lando Norris’ progress in the drivers’ championship is cause for alarm, but says he isn’t panicking about his situation just yet.
Norris returned from the summer break with a crushing win at Verstappen’s home track, Zandvoort. However Verstappen retains a healthy, 70-point lead with nine rounds remaining.Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko described Norris’ 22-second victory as “alarming”, a view Verstappen shared. “I think this weekend was just a bad weekend in general, so we need to understand that,” he said.
“The last few races already, they haven’t really been fantastic. So that, I think in a sense, was already a bit alarming.
“But we know that we don’t need to panic. We are just trying to improve the situation. And that’s what we are working on. But F1 is very complicated.”
But despite McLaren’s strong performance last weekend Norris said he is still too far behind his rival to entertain serious thoughts of rivalling him for the championship.
“I’ve been fighting for the championship since the first race of the year,” said Norris. “There’s no sudden decision of ‘now I need to do better’. I’ve been working hard the whole year and I’m still 70 points behind Max so it’s pretty stupid to think of anything at the minute.
“I just take one race at a time and just keep doing what I’m doing now because there’s no point to think ahead and think of the rest. I don’t care about it at the minute.
“I’m just focused on one race at a time. So it’s not a question that I need to get asked every single weekend.”
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2024 Dutch Grand Prix
- Previous technical hires no obstacle to Newey joining Aston Martin – Krack
- Mercedes still unsure whether Spa floor upgrade is working
- McLaren’s Dutch GP upgrade “nowhere near” as significant as Miami package
- “Very hard to pinpoint” why car has become harder to drive – Verstappen
- Only one F1 driver is making worse starts than Norris in 2024
Jere (@jerejj)
26th August 2024, 8:39
As long as he keeps finishing within the top 5 consistently, the drivers’ championship should be safe, but constructors’ championship is definitely under threat & most likely will be lost over the remaining 9 rounds.
JOA20
26th August 2024, 9:37
While a 70 points advantage in WDC is nothing to scoff at, in WCC it’s just 30 points. The next three events will be utterly important since there’s a 4-week gap before the double triple-headers (still baffled by the absurdity of the calendar). McLaren might even overtake Red Bull in the standings by the Singapore Grand Prix at this rate.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
26th August 2024, 9:45
I think the battle really is on in the Constructors. Overall McLaren seem to have the better car at the moment and have the better driver line up in current circumstances. Two or three more races like this and they will be right on Red Bull’s tail. I am not ruling Red Bull out of winning both though still.
I think WDC is a much tougher call for McLaren/Lando. Max just needs to be consistently near the front. Not winning always.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
26th August 2024, 9:58
Honest question. If there is indeed something fundamentally wrong with the Red Bull, can’t they revert to an older spec? Or would that put them on the back foot even more?
anon
26th August 2024, 10:38
@matthijs it appears that they have been experimenting with reverting to some older specification parts in some areas, so there is an element of that happening.
However, it depends whether some of their upgraded components are compatible with the older specification parts. Additionally, it may be that they feel that the upgraded parts, even if not working entirely as intended, are still giving more performance overall than the older specification car.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
26th August 2024, 18:09
The rate at which Mclaren would be able to develop the car and unlock pace was perhaps underestimated by Red Bull at the start of the year. Mclaren has also developed their own wind tunnel. Red Bull also have to develop their own engine keeping 2026 in mind. Then there is this speculation around the use of asymmetric braking and the changes in the technical regulation. Even if the old spec is tried, other teams have made much more progress. All in all, it seems Red Bull has been outdeveloped at this point.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
26th August 2024, 10:06
Verstappen should easily secure the championship – if he doesn’t it will be a massive bottlejob.
Patrick (@paeschli)
26th August 2024, 10:18
I don’t understand this argument. If McLaren has the best car by a good margin, there is no reason Norris can not win all the races in the second half of the season. Add in a couple fastest laps and Piastri who might finish second a couple times and things start looking rough for Verstappen if he finished only 2nd or 3rd every round.
w0o0dy (@w0o0dy)
26th August 2024, 10:40
Max did very well to hang onto 2nd yesterday. The car is probably only 2nd fastest by a slim margin (sometimes it’s Mercedes and sometimes Ferrari). The lack of consistency from competitors is what might help him hang on but if Norris and Piastri are going to devide wins than he might even lose the WDC. The car is just 2nd at best and might even be closer to 3rd fastest. I feel Max is elovating the car to finishes that the car is not supposed to be at based on its speed and characteristics. Outperforming the car since 4 or 5 races in… Pretty stellar performance. But Wache seems to have missed the warnings about the speed and rate of development of the competition. RedBull also seems vonurable in strategy and execution. The WCC is there for McLaren to lose at this point.
Davethechicken
26th August 2024, 10:56
The recent detailed analysis on this website before the Dutch GP showed Red Bull were still fastest but by a diminishing margin.
McLaren have not had a dominant race and if you read around Red Bulls set up at this race it seems they went wrong and were hampered by a lack of free practice time with rain and Logan’s crash.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
26th August 2024, 10:53
Bottlejob by Red Bull indeed, not by Verstappen. Finishing 2nd is the best he could do.
Davethechicken
26th August 2024, 11:00
I would question that.
Perez finished closer to Max than Oscar did to Lando, both in qualifying and race.
I don’t think anyone would seriously entertain that Sergio is anywhere near Oscar’s pace.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
26th August 2024, 11:31
Fair. But there is little chance that Verstappen could have beaten Norris, so 2nd was realistically still the best possible outcome. Whether it was with 2 seconds or 22 seconds.
Davethechicken
26th August 2024, 11:44
I don’t think Max maximised this weekend and definitely could have put more of a fight then Lando, but as you say second may have been his best result anyway.
I think it will be a moot point as Max has to big a lead, but if Lando did win this years WDC, Max would have to reflect on the large number of points he lost by his own mistakes, for examples Monaco (where he hit the wall in Q3), Austria and Hungary. He can’t blame the team for those.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th August 2024, 23:03
Dave, monaco and hungary are a minor amount of points lost: he gave up the possibility of 3rd place and ended up with 5th in hungary, that’s only 5 points, monaco similar story.
Austria doesn’t make sense: he gained a lot of points on norris with their crash, don’t tell me someone else than verstappen or norris is going to win the championship, cause I won’t believe that.
What better outcome could’ve been for verstappen in austria? Only winning by taking norris out, as I see it, but they’d have had to crash anyway for that, if norris had taken the lead it’d have been worse for verstappen.
Patrick (@anunaki)
26th August 2024, 13:24
The setup of Max’s car was very different from Checo and proved to be very poor in tyre wear and race pace. This will normally not be the case in every race so it might be a one off
David BR (@david-br)
26th August 2024, 12:56
@come-on-kubica Depends. If McLaren have consistently the best car now, they should win both championships. If Verstappen continues to grab second place despite the odds, he’ll fully deserve the title. I don’t think his pace or commitment is in doubt. However, there’s still the potential for flashpoints in critical races where racing decisions under intense pressure for wins could decide the WDC title either way. The question is maybe how much of a spoiling role Mercedes and Ferrari play. A few good weekends from either or both could scupper Norris’s chances.
I don’t see McLaren losing the constructors’ unless Red Bull find the pace they lost (‘somewhat mysteriously’). Verstappen can eek out vital points but Pérez’s best being 6th or 7th is a fatal weakpoint.
Davethechicken
26th August 2024, 14:25
McLaren aren’t dominant though, David. They haven’t been at any point this season.
Sure Lando won well this race, but Lewis won in Belgium, and the Red Bull was quickest by a long way in qualifying. Their race pace looked good to but unfortunately with Max taking the engine penalty he was stuck in DRS train.
Also Red Bull ran a Monaco rear wing inZandvoort which they admitted after was a mistake.
David BR (@david-br)
26th August 2024, 15:11
No, I wouldn’t say dominant, but I think it’s a consensus that McLaren now have, overall, the fastest car, albeit not by much. Plus they have two good drivers to Red Bull’s one. That should (or can) be a huge advantage in a close season. It’s fine margins and you’re right, poor setups, unexpected weekend track conditions and temperatures, and non-functioning upgrades can make all the difference. But I’d stick by the constructors’ championship being hugely in McLaren’s favour right now despite still trailing 30 points.
Billybob
26th August 2024, 15:31
Not dominant because of the mistakes of the team and the driver that has been made, not because the car wasn’t the fastest. the car is clearly the fastest.
Davethechicken
26th August 2024, 16:51
https://www.racefans.net/2024/08/13/no-f1-driver-says-they-have-the-quickest-car-maybe-this-time-theyre-all-correct/
If you read the analysis Red Bull were still fastest up to and including Belgium when this article was done.
We will see with time if McLaren can pull ahead of the rest.
David BR (@david-br)
27th August 2024, 0:00
Davethechicken, I couldn’t actually work out what that article was saying! with all due apologies to Keith. Were Red Bull really fastest in Belgium??
BLS (@brightlampshade)
26th August 2024, 10:26
As long as Max keeps getting podiums (which he seems very capable of) then the WDC should be safe. The McLaren does look the class of the field at the moment but Max has a massive lead, plus I’m not convinced McLaren/Norris are quite at the level of consistent wins yet.
If Ferrari and/or Mercedes can regularly get between the McLarens and Max though, that’s when that lead can very quickly diminish.
David BR (@david-br)
26th August 2024, 13:23
@brightlampshade True, for Norris he’ll need the Ferraris and Mercedes to be in the sweet spot, faster than Verstappen/RB, slower than him (and Piastri by default given how close the two McLaren drivers are usually). Too fast and they take big chunks of points off his title bid.
David West
26th August 2024, 17:15
It’s not “alarming”.
Norris needs to win consistently from now on – unlikely
McLaren needs to be good enough over most of the remaining tracks for Piastri to also beat Verstappen but not really take many points from Norris – unlikely
Either Mercedes or Ferrari need to consistently take points from Verstappen but not Norris – unlikely.
Bookies have Norris at 3/1 for the title which is very poor value but it does show that there is still some life in the title, Verstappen is 1/3 on which is good value but bookies don’t give money away.
Tomcat173 (@tomcat173)
27th August 2024, 4:52
However unlikely, McLaren could easily be good enough over the remaining tracks to beat Verstappen. Likewise, unless they unlock something on their cars, Mercedes and Ferrari could easily stay out of the battle at the front.
What’s most unlikely is Norris being consistent enough to start winning alot. He’s shown that he’s got the speed, but we don’t know if he’s got the head to take the fight to Red Bell, be consistent and start dominating. The last sentence in the quote – about not being asked about the championship every weekend – makes him sound immature. The WDC is not completely unreachable, but he’s absolutely going to get asked about it for the remainder of the year if he stays in contention.
Applebook
27th August 2024, 5:41
The biggest alarm for Max right now is that Mercedes and Ferrari are also sometimes very strong but generally not strong enough to beat McLaren in a straight fight. It’s conceivable for Max not to score podiums in a good number of upcoming races.
Mayrton
27th August 2024, 13:22
This is obviously a press answer. They should and are in panic. Both championships are on the line. The WCC is of no interest to a soda manufacturer but rest assured they are panicking over the WDC.
McLaren clearly have had the strongest and most consistent car for 5 to 6 races now and added domination to that. The other 3 top teams are lost, each in their own way. Mercedes is incredibly inconsistent. Ferrari admit they have no idea why they are sometimes competitive and sometimes not (the not knowing being the worst part and an indicator they won’t recover this season) and RedBull has no balance whatsoever in the car for over 5 races now.
Piastri is no Perez and is going to secure 2nd places (the team will have learned to let Lando win) and Mercedes and occasionally Ferrari is going to beat Verstappen. So on average Lando will score 1st/2nd places the rest of the season while I think Max will get on average position 4 or 5. Do the math.. and that is without a DNF for Max which is also more likely to come when he starts further back.
People tend to look at history and the point overhaul needed and state this has never happened in the past.. but disregard the season has way more races than before and disregard the disproportionate domination seen in recent history. Vettel, Lewis, Max, now Norris.. it is due to technology that domination is way more fierce than it used to be. All in all this season is far from wrapped for Max. If RedBull doesn’t sort out their balance issue, I predict a WDC for Lando.
David BR (@david-br)
28th August 2024, 15:39
Reminds me somewhat of 2009 when Button streaked ahead in the race wins and points but was being caught by Vettel towards the end (with Seb having 3 DNFs to Button’s 1 DNF over the season). Verstappen is a much stronger driver but I agree with you that the recent historical precedent has been for one dominant team and early season competition between its drivers, or a second team posing a threat for a while and then fading (hello Ferrari). A team being dominant for 2+ seasons and then being effectively caught a third of the way into the third season is unusual. Maybe going back further there are examples.
In this case, not only have been Red Bull being pulled back into the ‘second tier’ of McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari, it’s impossible to say right now which teams will be the most consistent in the next 9 races. If, say, McLaren and Mercedes were consistently at the top, Verstappen’s lead would vanish rapidly. I expect the most consistent teams to be McLaren and Red Bull still but there’s too much uncertainty, a few good (or bad) upgrades and the title situation changes radically.
Stoo (@stewart51)
27th August 2024, 17:21
I’m a huge McLaren and Norris fan (I have been a McLaren fan since about 1968 – no apologies for that), but there are too many unknowns in each race to predict a WDC for him. Just the weather can throw a huge spanner in the works from track to track, and unfortunately the kind of dominance Mercedes had with Hamilton; Rosberg and Bottas just isn’t there yet as far as predictions are concerned. What is it they say, “One Swallow doesn’t make it a Summer”.
I’d love to see him take the WDC away from Max, but I just don’t see that perfect score happening. All it takes at one or two races is a puncture, a hydraulic leak, or any of a million things to go wrong and Norris would be finished – apart from being second or third in the championship that is. McLaren would also have to name him the No. 1 Driver, and they haven’t even done that yet, if they ever do.
A little bit of patience and wait until it’s down to a couple of races to go, then maybe you can speculate and gamble away – but for now – nope.
David BR (@david-br)
28th August 2024, 15:41
All true but McLaren’s team decisions (relative to their drivers during races) could be a crucial factor by the end of the season.