Lando Norris admits he ‘wasn’t ready’ to fight Max Verstappen for F1 title

Lando Norris has conceded he wasn’t “outright ready” to go head-to-head with Max Verstappen for the F1 title at the start of the season.

After a slow start to the year, Norris found himself as Verstappen’s nearest challenger during the middle of the season.

Following the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the gap between the pair was just 52 points.

Since that point though, while McLaren have had the edge over Red Bull, Verstappen has extended his lead to 62 points and is on the brink of the F1 title.

Verstappen can wrap up this year’s title if he finishes ahead of Norris at this weekend’s F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Reflecting on this season, Norris said in the pre-race FIA press conference: “Yeah, I think going into a season with a mindset of let's try and win it, it's a very different mindset to what we had this year. It's been a different story throughout the season.

“We started miles off the pace. We started third, fourth, best team at the beginning of the year. We were for a long time. Red Bull were extremely dominant, more dominant than any other team has been for the rest of the year. We've been extremely quick and probably one of the quickest for the most part. But when we have been, it's been by a much smaller margin. So to create the differences that they were able to create in the beginning of the year, it's pretty much impossible.

“I feel like I've still done a very good job, but it's clear… One thing you'll always get from me is the honesty of whether I've done a good job, a bad job, or whether we as a team have done a good job or a bad job and I'll be honest with what I say. I think there's been plenty of races, there's been a good few where we didn't perform to the level we needed to do, as a team. Silverstone, for example, is one where we should have had probably a 1-2. And we couldn’t have finished further from a 1-2.”

While Norris thinks he wasn't ready to contend with Verstappen at the start of the season, the 25-year-old feels he's now performing closer to a level required to take it to the Red Bull driver.

“There are times where as a team we didn't perform at the level we needed to do as a world championship winning team but there's also been plenty of times when I've not performed at the level I need to perform at to win a championship," Norris added.

“I probably wasn't outright ready to go up against Red Bull and Max. I think I am now, and it's probably too late to do that.”

Norris acknowledged the challenge of going up against a driver of Verstappen’s calibre, hailing him as “one of the best drivers ever in Formula 1”.

“Maybe there are other drivers in the past that were ready for such an occasion,” he explained. “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.”