Summer break is over. After a run of 14 races over 22 weeks in four different continents, Formula One returns from its monthlong hiatus with the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, Netherlands. Dutchman Max Verstappen looks to win his home race for the fourth year in a row. Verstappen is the only winner of the Dutch Grand Prix since it returned to the F1 calendar in 2021. This Dutch Grand Prix will be the 200th F1 race of Verstappen's career. Another victory for the 26-year-old this weekend would tie him with Jim Clark for the most career wins at Zandvoort with four. Verstappen remains atop the drivers' championship standings with a 78-point lead over Lando Norris.
Lando Norris says he has “not performed at the level of a world champion” so far this season, but still believes he can challenge Max Verstappen for the title. The McLaren driver is 78 points behind Red Bull’s Verstappen with 10 races to go as the season resumes at this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, following the summer break.
Norris has been critical of his own level of performance during the first half of the season. Norris said: “I’m still very happy with how the season’s gone, but just one too many mistakes and a few too many points given away. Which is not the level I need to be at if I want to fight for a championship and fight against a driver like Max.”
Norris and McLaren head into the second part of the season with a realistic chance of overhauling Red Bull’s 42-point lead in the constructors’ championship, but with both Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri motivated to do everything they can to catch Verstappen in the drivers’ chase.
“For the team, of course [we can do it],” Norris said. “As a driver, it is still within reach but it is a lot of points and it’s against Max. I want to be optimistic and say there are still chances. I know it’s a lot and it’s going to be a very difficult challenge but, with how I know I can perform when things click, I still want to believe it’s possible.”
But Norris said a series of small errors - particularly at the starts and first laps of races - had let him down. “In the first half of the season, I have not performed at the level of a world champion,” he said. “Simple as that. At times I have. Many races I have. But little things have let me down along the way and those are things I can’t afford. In the last few races I have not been at the level I need to be at.”
Norris’ hopes are boosted at Zandvoort this weekend by an upgrade on the McLaren car - their first performance development since the one introduced in Miami in May, which transformed them into frontrunners.
“We have some things on the car this weekend,” Norris said. “We’ve not really had an upgrade since Miami. And a lot of other teams have done. So it’s about time, but in a good sense, we have taken our time to try to understand things well. We have seen other teams put things on the car and they’ve not worked, and we wanted to avoid that.”
McLaren boss Andrea Stella has backed Lando Norris as “performing at world championship level”, following on from comments by the Briton in which he suggested that he had not been driving at the standard required to fight for the title in the first half of the season.
Despite being Max Verstappen’s closest challenger in the drivers’ standings – though the gap remains at 78 points – Norris stated ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix that he felt he hadn’t “performed at the level I need to perform at if I want to fight for a championship”, as well as voicing his intention to iron out “little mistakes”.
When asked about Norris’ remarks, Stella acknowledged that, while the 24-year-old’s tendency to be his own worst critic can have its advantages, he believes that Norris has displayed his potential to become a world champion.
“If we compare against perfection, then definitely we have opportunities [to improve]. But I like that we compare ourselves against perfection, because this is what we need to do. I’ve been very encouraged that every little opportunity has been analysed in a great level of detail.
“Lando has always been very open and transparent – like he [is] with the public – definitely with the team, and we are together in trying to nail and polish all the possible situations in which we need to be better at delivering according to the potential.
“[He is] definitely world championship material – like in everything, [for] Lando, Oscar [Piastri], the entire team, every single opportunity to improve needs to be attacked with determination to improve.”
Stella was then pushed on whether the errors Norris mentioned could be a sign that he is struggling with the pressure of being in a championship fight, to which the Team Principal acknowledged the role of the team in some of the situations where they have got things wrong.
“Lando is definitely world championship material. He performs already at levels that I’ve seen in the past in some of the great champions I had the luck to work with,” Stella reiterated.
“We definitely have some things to clean [up] on the start itself, which is not only [down to the] driver, but also the team’s responsibility.
“Then I think he had a couple of situations in the races in which he might have taken some of the responsibility, but I think it was the team’s responsibility – like if we think of Canada, a case in which we didn’t pit Lando for the late Safety Car before the pit entry, or if I think about Silverstone and the final stint.
“That’s the team’s responsibility – if the team had operated at higher standards, then Lando would have more points in the championship. Definitely as a team we kind of appreciate that he puts some of the pressure on himself or he raises his hand and says, ‘it was on me’.
“But I think I have enough experience to say, ‘don’t worry, that’s on the team – keep doing the good job, keep working to improve on your own opportunities’, but definitely we as a team have quite a lot of work to do as well.”
In terms of whether Norris can still take the fight to Verstappen in this year’s title battle, Stella added: “He can win world championships – that’s a statement that is [in] capital letters. In terms of this year’s championships, certainly we don’t give up.
“Numerically, from a drivers’ championship point of view, it looks like there’s a big gap to fill, and we are chasing Max Verstappen, so definitely he’s not going to make it easy for us.
“But we are excited to be in this position, and definitely Lando is not in this position because somebody helped him – Lando is in this position because he performs very strongly, and that’s something that we should acknowledge and realise in terms of his achievements, not only in terms of the one, two, three opportunities in a season in which he could have done better, because this is normal, and this is normal for every world champion in every season.”
Piastri, who is 32 points behind Norris in the championship, says he had been driving with a broken rib for the three races leading up to the summer break in Britain, Hungary and Belgium.
He revealed the injury on Instagram this week, but until Thursday had not said when it happened or how it had affected him. He said it had been caused by his race seat not being a perfect fit, and that the problem began to emerge at the Spanish Grand Prix five races ago.
“You make the seat at the the start of the year and sometimes you get it a bit wrong and some tracks don’t expose it,” Piastri said. “But going to Barcelona, Austria, Silverstone, they are three pretty hardcore tracks, so a bit of a pressure point, and eventually my rib broke up. It’s all good now.”
He said he had discovered the extent of the injury after the British Grand Prix. “The scan was the day after Silverstone but it was definitely broken before Silverstone,” the Australian said. “Definitely it was some point around Austria. I think it was probably a bit disturbed in Barcelona and then after Austria it was pretty painful, and then Silverstone was a pretty nasty few days. But we made some changes and it was already getting better in Hungary and Belgium, so it’s all back to normal now.”
Verstappen starts his 200th grand prix this weekend, and has said he is “beyond halfway” in his career.
The Dutchman is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028 - although there is a possibility he could move to Mercedes from 2026, when new regulations come into force on both car and engine. On his future, he said: “In my mind at the moment I am not thinking about a new contract. I want to see how it goes and see the new regulations, if it’s fun or not. And in 2026 and 2027 there is a lot of time to decide what happens. I keep everything open but I am quite relaxed about it.”
Verstappen has won all three editions of the Dutch Grand Prix since it returned to the calendar in 2021, but said he expected this year’s to be his toughest yet given the competitiveness of the field at the moment - and the fact he has not won since June.
“Looking at how the season is at the moment, for sure [will be toughest race here],” he said. “I am not coming into this weekend saying we are going to win the race. Of course we analysed over the break how to do things different or better, and we will find out how that will go.”
Lando Norris trails championship leader Max Verstappen by 78 points going into the final 10 races of the season; McLaren are bringing significant upgrades to Zandvoort; watch every session from the Dutch GP live on Sky Sports F1, with first practice on Friday at 11.30am
Lando Norris says he still has “chances” to chase down world championship leader Max Verstappen during the remaining 10 races of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
The drivers will return to the track for practice on Friday at the Dutch Grand Prix following the sport's summer break, with Red Bull's Verstappen holding a 78-point advantage over McLaren's Norris at the top of the standings.
McLaren are also just 42 points back from Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship, having consistently closed the reigning champions' advantage in the weeks before the break.
Asked if titles were in reach for him and his squad, Norris said: “For the teams' championship, of course. For the drivers' championship, it's still in reach but it's a lot of points and it's Max, so I want to be optimistic and say there's still chances. I know it's a lot and it's going to be a very difficult challenge performing, but how we are performing and how I know I can perform when things click, I still want to believe.”
The impact of upgrades for the leading teams this season has been inconsistent, with both Ferrari and Red Bull both struggling after introducing major packages, but Norris is confident McLaren will be rewarded for taking a patient approach.
“We haven't had an upgrade since Miami,” Norris said. “We have added little things to the car but nothing that we call an 'upgrade'. A lot of other teams have done, especially our main competitors. In a good sense, we have taken our time to understand things. We have seen teams put things on the car and it hasn't worked. We wanted to make sure we avoided that, so we have been patient.”
Verstappen looked to be cruising towards a fourth successive drivers' crown as he won four of the first five races of the season, but since Norris claimed his maiden F1 victory in Miami, McLaren have generally had more pace than Red Bull.
However, Norris was unable to convert pole positions in Spain and Hungary to victories, and also lost out in Austria when Verstappen caused a collision between the pair that resulted in the Brit retiring from the race.
“I looked back on things,” Norris said. “I'm fighting for a championship, so I'm not going to be happy if I'm not performing at the level that I need to, to beat Max, Red Bull and other drivers. I'm still happy with how the season has gone, just one or two too many mistakes and too many points given away, which is not the level I need to be at if I want to fight for a championship and fight against a driver like Max.”
Asked what areas he needs to improve on, Norris added: “There's a mixture of things - but starts and lap one. There's not a single thing I need to change. But that's where most of my opportunities have gone away from. After lap one onwards, generally the races have been very strong and the pace has been good, strategy I've been happy with. So, there are strong things but they have been overshadowed by having a bad start or bad turn one, or being a bit safe, trying to stay out of trouble and things like that.”
