Max Verstappen clinched his fourth world championship this season and saw off Lando Norris’ faint title challenge for McLaren.
Verstappen took advantage of having a dominant car in the opening few rounds and won seven of the first 10 races of the season for Red Bull.
Norris was superb at times over the summer but made critical errors for McLaren, which caused his momentum to stutter as Verstappen won the championship.
The McLaren driver took a step forward this year as it was Norris’ first season competing at the front and he had to deal with the added media pressure.
Nico Rosberg won the Formula 1 world championship in 2016 and explained Norris should aim for one thing that may hinder Verstappen.
Lando Norris should push to for the rules around wheel-to-wheel combat to be adjusted
Norris battled with Verstappen wheel-to-wheel over the season and the majority of the duels were won by the Red Bull driver on his way to the title.
The pair collided at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, and they battled once more at the Mexico City Grand Prix where Verstappen was awarded a penalty.
He has stepped over the limit at times in recent years, such as in 2021 when battling Lewis Hamilton for the world championship.
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The rules are potentially confusing and incidents such as at the United States Grand Prix between Verstappen and Norris caused controversy.
Rosberg explained on the Sky Sports F1 podcast that Norris should push for a tweak in the guidelines to stop the reigning champion from lunging the car in front on the brakes.
He said: “There needs to be a limit that’s set, a new limit, I would say. At the moment, the regulations just allow him to do these lunges, and the other guy has to move out of the way. As long as Max stays on the track, then he’s good. And it’s just too extreme.
“So maybe Lando needs to be pushing on that front a little bit just to tighten things up or just analyse. Again, prepare the hell out of it. He needs to analyse every single wheel-to-wheel battle that Max Verstappen has been in throughout the last three years.
“Every single one. The team needs to prepare the snippets of videos and study them, and study them and study them and study them to understand what he could do better tactically to beat Max in those situations.”
Lando Norris needs to be more decisive to win the world championship for McLaren
Norris had great pace at times this season and took a couple of superb victories in the Netherlands and Singapore but was too indecisive.
He lost a lot of points in Austria and at the Italian Grand Prix through wheel-to-wheel combat when Norris came off worse.
Rosberg feels Piastri is more complete than Norris, as the Australian made very few errors this season and was integral to McLaren’s Constructors’ Championship win.
Heading into 2025, Norris needs to hit the ground running and compete with Verstappen in combat. This may be risky, but he is yet to get the better of the four-time world champion in a battle on the circuit.
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