LUSAIL, Qatar — Lando Norris disagrees with Max Verstappen’s belief he would have won the Formula One world championship earlier had he been driving a McLaren, saying the Dutchman “should start doing comedy or something.”
Verstappen clinched his fourth F1 world championship last Saturday in Las Vegas with two rounds remaining in the season by finishing ahead of Norris, who had been his sole remaining challenger in the title race.
Post-race, Verstappen said he thought Red Bull had lacked the quickest car for 70 percent of the season, having endured a 10-race winless run between the Spanish GP in June and Sã0 Paulo GP in November. Red Bull struggled to replicate its dominant early-season form through this period while Norris and McLaren built momentum, allowing them to close up in the title race.
Speaking to the Dutch media after the race, Verstappen said he thought he’d have won the title “even earlier” had he been driving a McLaren and that he could also have won the championship in a Ferrari.
Earlier in the evening, Verstappen had joked to McLaren CEO Zak Brown during an interview on Sky Sports: “Like you said before, I could only win it in the fastest car. This year has been a little bit different.”
When Verstappen’s comment was put to Norris in Qatar on Thursday, the British driver laughed and said: “He should start doing comedy or something.
“He can say whatever he wants. Of course, I’m afraid I have to disagree, as I would. He’s good, but, yeah, it’s not true.”
Verstappen won his fourth world championship in Las Vegas last weekend. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
McLaren was often the most consistent team through Verstappen’s winless run, but Norris could only claim two victories in that period as teammate Oscar Piastri, Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, and the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz all won races.
That open competition played a role in Norris failing to make serious inroads on Verstappen, whose charge from 17th to first in a rainy São Paulo GP shifted the momentum and set him up to win the title in Las Vegas.
It was put to Norris that unlike him, Verstappen also did not face close competition from within his own team amid Sergio Pérez’s continued struggles. Pérez has not finished on the podium since China in April, nor has he beaten Verstappen on track this year.
Norris said there were “pros and cons” to that situation for Verstappen, noting that it also meant he had to do the bulk of the work and scoring himself.
“There’s a lot of things that Max can do that are phenomenal,” Norris said. “Driving at the level he does consistently without a teammate that can push him in any way certainly doesn’t make his life harder from that perspective or from a team perspective.
“But at the same time, there is no pressure. He doesn’t have to deal with trying to beat someone in his own team and that comes with some comfort.
“But they go together, and sometimes, and in some ways, I like having a bit of pressure because it makes me do a better job. I’m sure he’s going to say he doesn’t care, whoever his teammate is he doesn’t mind.
“There’s pros and cons of having a strong teammate, and I hope at some point, he has one that can challenge him a bit more.”
While Norris has lost the drivers’ championship, McLaren does stand a chance of claiming its first constructors’ title since 1998, enjoying a 24-point lead over Ferrari going into the Qatar weekend.
Top photo of Lando Norris at the Las Vegas GP: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images
