Even though Lando Norris defeated Max Verstappen and narrowed the points difference, he was not in the mood to entertain talk about winning the race when he spoke to the media after winning the Dutch Grand Prix.
Lando Norris maintains that believing he and Max Verstappen are in a title contest this year would be “pretty stupid.”
The British driver put on a dominant display at Zandvoort to win his second Formula 1 championship. When he collected the chequered flag, he was nearly 23 seconds ahead of home favorite Verstappen. Even after that strong performance, he is still 70 points behind the Dutchman in the drivers’ standings, and Norris is unwilling to consider a championship run with nine races remaining in the current season.
“I need to do better—despite my best efforts throughout the year, I’m still 70 points behind Max,” he declared. Thus, trying to think of anything right now would be foolish. It doesn’t make sense to plan ahead and consider the other races, so I just focus on one at a time and continue doing what I’m doing. It doesn’t concern me right now. I’m only paying attention to one race at a time. Thus, I don’t need to field this question each and every weekend.”
This season, McLaren has continuously put Red Bull under pressure. However, Ferrari and Mercedes have also won numerous races, so they’re not the only ones who have sensed blood in the water.
At Zandvoort, the latter were remarkably off the pace as teammate Lewis Hamilton finished one place ahead of George Russell, who hobbled home in seventh. The Italians, on the other hand, were stronger than anticipated, and Carlos Sainz finished fifth, while Charles Leclerc, who finished third, was as surprised as anyone to be on the podium.
When questioned about his expectations for the Italian Grand Prix next weekend, Norris made it clear that, like most others, he is having difficulty gauging the grid’s current power balance. He retorted, “I’m not sure.” You inquire as though we should be aware of these things! I have no idea.
“Anyone can be at the top. Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, and us. Today, Ferrari demonstrated impressive speed. We most likely didn’t anticipate them to be as excellent as they were. Perhaps Red Bull had some more difficulty. That, in my opinion, had a greater role in the Red Bull’s struggles today than we had anticipated.
“We simply don’t look up. It is pointless to consider our performance for the upcoming weekend. We’ll just arrive, put in a lot of effort, and wait for our destination. It is useless to plan ahead.”
Fortunately for the British driver, McLaren CEO Andrea Stella has confirmed that additional vehicle enhancements are planned. “We will be more competitive even where Red Bull were faster than us, potentially,” he stated, citing the recent upgrades.
It’s difficult to observe… However, we believe that the car’s current configuration may not provide the necessary performance to be the best car at every event. We intend to provide more updates before the season ends because of this.”
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