Lando Norris remains firm in stance over Austin penalty | Vows to 'change some little things'

Lando Norris has vowed to ‘change some little things’ when he goes head-to-head with Max Verstappen on-track after their controversial incident at the United States Grand Prix.

Norris was beaten by Verstappen after picking up a five-second time penalty for overtaking the Dutchman off the track.

The incident was controversial as Norris was only forced off the track due to Verstappen braking too late into Turn 12.

However, due to the current wording of the rules, it was deemed to be Verstappen’s corner as he made the apex first and thus Norris should have relinquished the position.

Speaking to media including Crash.net in Mexico, Norris was asked if he needs to be more aggressive in his approach following Austin.

He replied: “It's not an easy answer, honestly. It's not as simple as just saying yes. Do I need to make some changes? Yes. And still adapt a little bit more. But is everything I'm doing wrong also is a no. So it's a tough position to be in because like we saw, Max didn't care if he won, or second, or third.

“His only job was to beat me, and he did that, so he did a good job from that side.

“And I had a lot of fun, and I respected our battle that we had. But yeah, he still ended up on top, and I need to be beating him, so some little things I need to change, but I don't need to change my whole approach.”

Norris has remained firm in disagreeing with the stewards over his five-second penalty at the Circuit of the Americas.

The McLaren driver revealed he’s not spoken to Verstappen about the incident while hinting at making “changes” to how he races the reigning world champion.

“No, I have not spoken to Max at all,” he added. “Because he did what I guess he thought was right, I did what I thought was right. I still disagree, and I think as a team we still disagree.

“I think the majority of people who were watching disagreed with the penalty that I got. But I'll make the changes that I need to make, whether it's being more aggressive at times, or less aggressive, or whatever. I'll do what I think is right.”

Verstappen in a “powerful position”

Ahead of this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, Verstappen is 57 points clear of Norris in the drivers’ championship.

With five rounds to go, Verstappen is in a commanding position to take his fourth straight title.

Norris acknowledged that Verstappen can afford to take more risks given his healthy lead in the championship.

“Yeah, I mean, clearly Max is very good at what he does, and is probably the best in the world at what he does,” Norris explained. “So when I'm going up against the best in the world, it's not going to be an easy thing to do. And he's been racing in this position for longer than I have, I'm definitely not doing a perfect job, but I'm not doing a bad job.

“I'm still staying there, I'm avoiding collisions, which a lot of things that we've done could have easily been and turned into worse things, like bigger crashes and stuff. And I've avoided them and stayed in races which easily could have ended earlier than they have.

“But no, I think there's certain things I don't agree with. But I still want to be racing, I don't want there to be rules for absolutely everything. I just believe the slight way of how I got a penalty last weekend, and the consequence of how that happened, I didn't agree with, and that's the only thing I think that needs to be changed.

“But it's clear what his intentions are, it's a difficult route for me to get around, getting caught up in collisions and things like Turn 1 easily could have been, or Turn 12 easily could have been. So he's in a much more powerful position than I am, it's up to me and the team to try and overcome that.”