Lando Norris doubted that he would have received the 2024 Method 1 title even with an ideal season, however was nonetheless happy with McLaren for bringing itself into competition over the season.
Norris’ dwindling probabilities of a title got here to an finish on the Las Vegas Grand Prix, having wanted to outscore Max Verstappen by three factors to take the combat to the next spherical in Qatar.
Purple Bull driver Verstappen completed fifth forward of Norris to finish his title defence because the Briton struggled with entrance graining over the race distance, though a late change to softs helped him to swipe the quickest lap level.
Norris felt that it had been a giant achievement for McLaren to climb up the pecking order into common victory competition however mentioned that, even with perfection in every race, Verstappen would have nonetheless been too tough to beat over the season.
“I am very happy with the entire staff for placing up the combat for thus lengthy, for beginning to catch up and catching up as a lot as we did. We had been the fourth-best staff at first of the 12 months,” Norris mentioned.
“Purple Bull have by no means been the fourth-best staff or worst, for example, ever. We had simply too huge of a deficit to catch up from the start of the season, and we couldn’t, as a result of they have been too sturdy.
“Subsequent 12 months, we’ll go into the season with a automotive we expect we are able to win a championship with from spherical one, and we have not been in a position to do this for the final six years, so I am excited for that.
“However I am happy with what we have achieved. My first win in Method 1, my first three [wins], nobody else is there preventing him. It has been me and it has been McLaren.
“Might we have now achieved some issues higher? Completely. Do I feel we may have received the championship even with an ideal season? I do not. So I am completely happy to complete second.”
Max Verstappen, Purple Bull Racing RB20, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Group VCARB 01
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Photos
With McLaren’s focus now on securing the constructors’ title, Norris mentioned that he was extra fearful in regards to the tough run McLaren confronted in Vegas moderately than being glad Mercedes helped to mitigate the injury to Ferrari with its 1-2 end.
He additionally reckoned that the race confirmed that McLaren defied widespread perception that it had the perfect automotive in F1, and that he could not get something extra out of it.
“I do not consider these issues [Mercedes beating Ferrari], I consider how unhealthy our automotive was as we speak. That is what worries me, not Mercedes being sturdy. It was how poor we have been all weekend.
“Clearly, we have now quite a lot of work to do with our automotive. It is too tough to drive. It would not work in these circumstances.
“It would not work in lots of different tracks the place we have had comparable circumstances, however we have been capable of get the whole lot out of it generally, even when folks suppose we have had the perfect automotive, we have completely not.
“We nonetheless received a few of these races, and people had been the good weekends. However this weekend, even when I really feel like I drove fairly effectively, I could not get something extra out of it, and if I attempted, I might in all probability find yourself within the wall someplace.”
Pictures from Las Vegas GP Race
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