27/06/2024 20:10
| door Shanna Lutgert
Lando Norris knows that it is not that easy to compete against Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing. Naturally, the championship formation does not give up easily, and Norris has already found that out a few times. The Brit is well aware that he is fighting with a driver who has several titles to his name and that he really has to be flawless if he wants to win.
Norris and McLaren have proven since the Miami Grand Prix that they can be a strong opponent and put the Austrian team under pressure. In Miami, the Briton won his first race, and in Imola he was hot on Verstappen’s heels in the final phase of the race. It was also exciting in Canada. In Spain, Norris managed to secure pole position, but he lost almost everything at the start of the race. The McLaren driver wanted to close the door on Verstappen, but only thought too late of George Russell, who overtook both drivers on the outside.
“We are competing against one of the best drivers ever in Formula 1,” Norris kicks off in conversation with Formula1.com. “I think we’re at a level now where everything has to be perfect (to win, ed.). And if we’re not perfect, like at the start last weekend, then you pay the price. It’s as simple as that,” Norris continues. “If we lost a possible win anywhere, it was probably last weekend. But sometimes that happens. There are plenty of drivers who have lost a race, even when they had the fastest car, because of one thing, because of one small mistake.”
Red Bull is the king of details
Verstappen briefly trailed George Russell in the opening stages, but managed to overtake him on the second lap. Norris remained stuck behind his compatriot for longer, which cost him a lot of time. ‘But you also have to think about the positives, and how many things went well,’ says Norris. ’99 percent of things went well, so I’m generally very happy. I’m here to race and I’m here to win, and that’s what we all want at McLaren. So if you narrowly miss out on the win, it hurts, but overall we were faster than 18 other cars, and you have to be a little bit happy with that.’
Red Bull is pushing the Woking team to get the most out of everything, even the little things. ‘It’s a lot of little things that weren’t even at the top of the list five, six years ago, but are now. My start last weekend wasn’t that bad, it just wasn’t as good as it should have been. You can look at it that way too’, Norris points out.
‘We won’t do everything perfectly’
However, he knows that those little things make the difference, especially when competing against a team like Red Bull. “The team is at a very strong level, but we are competing, as I said, against a driver who has won multiple titles and a team that has won multiple championships,” said Norris. ‘They know what all these little things mean and they have been able to stay on top of it for much longer than we have. The team is doing a great job and I’m doing my best on top of that. So we won’t do everything perfectly, but we will do our best to do it perfectly.’
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