Lando Norris has insisted he is in the Formula One world championship fight with Max Verstappen and believes his McLaren team is well placed to take the competition to the wire, despite team orders denying him victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Norris’s teammate, Oscar Piastri, took his debut F1 win in Budapest with a superb drive, but the final third of the race was marked by McLaren’s team orders. When Piastri was leading the team pitted Norris before the Australian, concerned that any problem at the stop may cost them a potential one- two. When Piastri then stopped, Norris took the lead on fresher tyres.
Norris was expected to give the place back but he resisted calls to do so until there were three laps to race. It cost him seven points against Verstappen, who now leads by 76 points with 11 races remaining. But Norris remained upbeat and confident he would be able to challenge the world champion.
“It’s still on,” he said. “I know it’s a big stretch. But I’m not going to say no to the challenge and definitely as a team, we won’t. Psychologically I’m happy, I’m excited. I’m ready to battle and looking forward to the battles that we’re going to have.”
Norris won his first race at the Miami GP this year since when McLaren have brought their car on with finesse. After the one-two in Budapest, where Verstappen was fifth after a late crash with Lewis Hamilton, it now appears to be the quickest on the grid.
Asked if he thought the title fight was a realistic target, Norris believed there was only more to come. Formula One heads to Spa next weekend for the final round before the summer break. “When I think of what we’re doing now, what we are able to do in the future in the short term and also long term after summer break, and we have more days like today, then you would be silly to say no,” he said.
“A lot of people are going to say that there’s no chance but we’re going to keep fighting and I’m going to give myself the best opportunity to do so, especially when you see Max today and Red Bull, not performing so well, making mistakes, crashing.”
The team orders row, however, overshadowed the race and, with Norris the only realistic contender to challenge Verstappen, McLaren’s decision not to prioritise him was questioned as was the standoff between the team and driver.
The team principal, Andrea Stella, maintained he would have expected nothing less. “He’s a race driver. Mention me a race driver who would have not done [the same thing],” he said. “Actually, you can mention to me many who would have not done it until lap 70 and I would be extremely concerned in that case if Lando had not demonstrated ‘I am a race driver’ because that’s the ethos, you need to fight hard.”
Stella also made it clear the scenario and the team’s attitude towards it has long been explicit, as discussed on the morning of each race. “We talk about our principles going racing. One is the interests of the team comes first. If you mess up in this matter you cannot be part of the McLaren team.”
