After getting the chance to take some time for introspection, Lando Norris has already reached acceptance of his likely defeat in F1 2024.

The British driver gave a mature and measured assessment of his season as he spoke to the media ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Lando Norris: ‘I probably wasn’t ready to face Max Verstappen’

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are chalk and cheese when it comes to their emotional approach to F1 racing. While Verstappen defaults to aggression, annoyance, and anger when things don’t go his way, Norris tends to be more on the morose and self-effacing side of things – to the point of being overly critical of himself.

In this regard, Norris is similar to Charles “I am stupid” Leclerc, who appears to have learned to take the value of the lessons from his defeats and turned that willingness to be self-critical into something more positive, and has become all the stronger for it as a result.

Norris’ approach may be more emotional than Verstappen’s, whose self-belief borders on the uncanny, and this emotional side has resulted in some questioning his mentality and whether he has the fortitude to become an F1 World Champion – particularly when up against someone so self-assured.

The mental side of F1 is perhaps the trickiest obstacle for any driver to overcome. After all, when blessed with the gift of speed and car control, it’s in the refinement of these talents that the little differences are made – and identifying the approach that works best for an individual can take time.

For Verstappen, this approach is one of belligerence. And, no, that’s not intended to be a criticism. It’s a thoroughly effective way of confronting adversity and Verstappen has proven, on multiple occasions, it’s a style of coping and processing that is very compatible with his personality.

But, for the unproven – like Norris – finding the approach that works in the same way can be tricky. Norris, over the past five years, has opted for self-effacement and, on occasion, sorrow, but there’s no doubting the fact that he has constantly been able to bounce back from the setbacks and disappointments he’s encountered along the way. It’s an approach that hasn’t been rebuffed by the experienced McLaren team boss Andrea Stella, too, who has been an engineer for some of the best in the business – Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, and Fernando Alonso.

This season has been an eye-opener for Norris. Until this year, he’s been part of a project that’s been focused on rebuilding, not titles. With the regulations remaining stable after F1 2023, many – including myself – expected the pecking order to remain largely the same as last year, albeit with the field closing up more due to convergence.

To start off, this was the case – but the development paths for Red Bull and McLaren meant convergence was short-lived – McLaren went from being clearly behind Red Bull to a step in front in just a few short weeks, with Red Bull caught out by correlation issues which it now seems to have stabilised, if not fully addressed.

It propelled Norris into a position he perhaps wasn’t quite ready for, as the British driver fully admitted as he spoke to the media in Las Vegas.

“I probably wasn’t outright ready to go up against Red Bull and Max,” he said, speaking about his position earlier in the season.

“I think I am now, and it’s probably too late to do that. Maybe there are other drivers in the past that were ready for such an occasion. But no one has gone up against Max so early on in kind of their career, halfway through the season, and put up, I think, a pretty reasonable fight. I mean, I’m there, but there’s no one else doing it, you know?

“So I’ve done my best. I’ve not done well enough. And I’ve always admitted that. And I think Max is probably one of the best drivers ever in Formula 1 and I don’t think you’ll probably get a much better driver than Max ever in Formula 1 ever again.

“That’s my opinion but that’s what I believe in and for me to go up against that belief, to fight against that person that I know is so good, Takes a bit more than what I probably achieved this season, but I think what I’ve done since the summer break is closer to what I need to be, and I think that is close to being good enough to fighting for it next year.”

The old cliché of the five stages of grief springs to mind. Having had his title hopes so firmly dashed in the space of a few hours in Brazil, seeing the slow chipping away of points and the increasing excitement over months suddenly become a mountain as great as it ever had been – it was no surprise that Norris was in the first stage, denial, immediately afterward, resulting in his ill-received comments about Verstappen and Red Bull being the beneficiaries of luck, not talent.

But the downtime immediately after Brazil has given Norris time to think, absorb, and reflect. It’s to his merit that he has come back with a practical mentality – the outcome is no longer in his hands. Sure, he can still win it mathematically but the circumstances are somewhat unrealistic – only two/three consecutive wins and/or a second/third place, with astonishingly bad luck for Verstappen, can change the outcome from the seemingly inevitable.

It’s taken just three weeks for Norris to skip straight to the acceptance stage, usually the last, without the intervening stages like anger, bargaining, and depression, being out in the public forum.

“You have to learn to accept it,” he said.

“I think what made it Brazil tough was two things. One was for something like this to happen so late in the season. I think, you know, when it’s earlier in the season, you know, it’s like it’s more so be it and you just see what happens later on.

“But this was almost a defining moment for the championship. It was a defining moment for the championship. The doors are almost shut. For a week, I was pretty down after Brazil because I had that realisation that things are pretty much out of my control now, not within reach necessarily.

“That’s a tough realisation when your hopes and your belief is so high for it to get knocked down so much all of a sudden was pretty demoralising and not the best of feelings. You learn to accept that. that’s life.

“I admitted, and I admitted even in Miami, that I was lucky in Miami to get the win with the Safety Car, and that’s the strategy you play. I think Brazil was still a bit more luck of the trade, but that is Formula 1. That’s racing. I’ve not complained about it. Luck can be on your side. It can be on other people’s side. That’s life. So I don’t mind. One day it will go your way. The next it won’t.”

Norris has also had to withstand an unfair amount of criticism, with many expecting him to be able to withstand the pressure and tactics employed by Verstappen at the first time of asking. Precious few have come close to winning the title in the same season as their first win – Jacques Villeneuve came close in a dominant Williams, but was beaten by the greater experience of Damon Hill.

A gift from Villeneuve aside at Jerez ’97, Mika Hakkinen’s 1998 season is a good example of a driver rising to the challenge as the more experienced Michael Schumacher piled on the pressure, while compatriot Kimi Raikkonen almost nailed down his first title challenge in 2003 – one engine failure less, and he could have achieved it. A few years later, Lewis Hamilton won his first race and, at season end, was just a point behind title winner Raikkonen.

It’s in Hamilton’s example that Norris can take solace. The seven-time F1 World Champion, one of the sport’s all-time greats, is similar in how he wears his heart on his sleeve and can become morose when things don’t go his way. Over the years, Hamilton learned a certain steeliness that he could employ as the stakes increased – the resolve and determination taking over to great effect.

“My approach has been correct. My approach has been the right approach for the last few weekends,” Norris said.

“I’ve been performing well. I’ve been doing a good job. So from my side, I need to not change anything, but I think I can probably just go out and enjoy a little bit more.”

On occasion this season, Norris has been untouchable. When Verstappen was vulnerable, Norris did sometimes capitalise to the fullest – his drives in Zandvoort and Singapore underlined this. Learning how to brush aside the criticisms, the pressure, and even the interests of his own teammate – these are talents that, at the first time of asking, it would be remarkable to nail down.

Certainly, Norris being met with a barrage of criticism after his drubbing in Brazil has resulted in the British driver coming back with some fight in him – his way is the right way for him. To beat the likes of a Verstappen, a Schumacher, a Senna, a certain steeliness is required, and he’s already showing signs that he’s realised that and is adding it to his repertoire after five years of being seen as a teddy bear-type figure – an example being how he was infantilised by fans during his teammate ‘bromance’ with Carlos Sainz.

“There are more eyes on you, of course,” Norris said.

“When you’re fighting at the front there’s more people watching and you’re going to have more supporters. In some ways, you’re going to have more people who are against you and supporting other drivers.

“There’s definitely been more controversial moments and things. I’ve definitely voiced my opinion probably more clearly than I have in the past and sometimes people who agree with it sometimes they won’t and I’m fine with that.

“I think things still clearly get taken out of context. That was one of the things in Brazil was stuff got quite easily taken out of context from what I said and created definitely the wrong perception of what I meant and what I said.

“I don’t feel like I’m under attack. You know, I don’t mind these things. That’s social media. You know, I do my best to just be honest, be myself and you always want people to be on your side. But at the same time, I realise you can’t have everyone on your side. And that’s probably one of the things I’ve realised this year. So, yeah, I probably have more enemies, but I’ve also got more supporters. And I’m obviously happier and more thankful for the supporters that I’ve got.”

A final triple-header awaits and, all things going well, Norris will have made a huge contribution to McLaren landing its first title since 1998 – a triumph that hasn’t been scored since before Norris was even born.

The stakes raise for next year. Unless McLaren fumbles the bag over winter, the MCL39 should be a capable match for the Red Bull RB21 from the get-go, and Norris won’t be attacking Verstappen from a compromised position from the guts of three race victories behind.

As I wrote after Brazil, burying his head in the sand about addressing the weaknesses, retaining the strengths, and emulating what Nico Rosberg did over the winter of 2015/16 is what’s needed for Norris to come back a bolder and tougher opponent for Verstappen next season. While he was not the finished article this year, there’s no reason to doubt that Norris can and will learn from his lessons this year. He’s perfectly capable of acknowledging when he’s done a good job, and the McLaren man was succinct in his summation heading into the Las Vegas weekend.

“I have what it takes,” he said.

“I think it’s the first time in the last six years of Formula 1 when we’ve had a chance to fight at the front, we’ve not been able to do that for the last six years. So this is our and my first opportunity to do so, and my first opportunity to see where I stand. And I definitely was not at the level I needed to be at the beginning of the year, and even Miami point of the season.

“Since the summer break, I feel like I’ve done a very good job and performed very, very well, by far some of my best performances that I’ve done. So I’ve been very happy, actually, with how the last few months have gone, honestly. I wouldn’t change many things that have happened.

“But I still need to make tweaks. I still need to improve on things. That’s clear. You know, I’m not completely satisfied with how I’ve done. I definitely know I need to make improvements.

“But for the first time, I’m confident to say that I have what I think I need to fight for a championship. Doesn’t mean I’m complete, doesn’t mean I’m perfect, that’s for sure. And when you’re competing against drivers who are close to that, like Max, you have to be close to perfect if you want to challenge him, you know, and challenge the teams we’re around. So I’m confident and I think the main thing I can take away is I have faith that I have got what it takes to fight for a championship.”

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