Lando Norris has “emerged from the pack” as the “most consistent challenger” to Max Verstappen with Red Bull expecting the McLaren driver to pose a major threat to him at this weekend’s home Austrian GP.
Verstappen and Norris have finished in the top two positions at five of the past six grands prix.
Although the defending champion has won five races going into the Norris race, the McLaren driver finished on the tail of the Red Bull driver at Imola, Montreal and, last week, Barcelona suggested he could still prove a genuine title threat to Verstappen with 14 races remaining in the season. 2024 which is a record length.
Norris’ latest runner-up finish in Spain moved him ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc into a career-best second place in the Drivers’ Championship, with 24-year-old Verstappen trailing by 69 points.
And reflecting on his driver’s two-second victory over Norris at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “If Lando has track position, it will be difficult to beat him.
“It was very close between the two of them and they were 18 seconds ahead of the others.
“I would say that Lando has come out of the pack as the most consistent challenger.”
Talk to Sky Sports NewsHorner added: “We’ve had four pole winners in the last four races. It’s very, very tight.
“But Lando I will say, he seems to have worked out this tire, McLaren has done a great job as well, and they will push us hard for the rest of the year.”
Norris, who won his first grand prix at the start of May at the Miami GP, has now finished twice 10th in the race – nine times runner-up to Verstappen – since McLaren introduced the transformative car upgrade at last year’s Austrian GP.
The lap of the Red Bull Ring takes more than 60 seconds to complete and Horner said ahead of this weekend’s Sprint event: “In the short laps it will be tight and we expect McLaren and Lando to be quick again.
“Ferrari and Mercedes? Who knows. If you look at the gap for them after the race, it’s almost the same as last year. The one who’s up is Lando.”
Indeed, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff – whose better teams finished third and fourth in Barcelona ahead of the Ferraris – admitted that Red Bull and McLaren are now a step ahead of the field.
“McLaren is very fast (in Spain). How fast, I don’t know, I think Max always has a little in the pocket and you see that makes the difference,” said Wolff.
“But there certainly isn’t much between these two and they certainly set the benchmark.”
Is Norris a genuine title threat to Verstappen?
Although Norris’ championship deficit to Verstappen has increased by 13 points in the last two races, although McLaren has a chance to win both – with the Dutchman now enjoying a season-high lead of 69 points at the top of the standings – that could change. quickly if the McLaren driver can turn the car’s ever-increasing speed into a win with the number of points remaining this season (396).
This weekend’s Austrian-only Sprint event, which features a 100km race on Saturday in addition to Sunday’s main grand prix, offers an additional eight points compared to the majority of events.
Asked about the title chances after Spain, Norris said: “We have to get some more points on Max. Potentially, there is a chance to beat him in Canada. So two races I finished second and he won.
“But Max has to stop winning to get it. Well, even if I move to second in the championship, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care if I’m second or 10th.
“It’s more about what gap Max and he is still widening this time and that’s what we can’t do or we can’t let him run this season.
“But we can do it. You know, if I just made some better decisions in Canada and if I had a better start (on Sunday), we could have won two races. And I know there’s a lot, and there’s always a kind of there have been many ‘shoulda, woulda, couldas’, but we have what it takes.
‘Red Bull knows where to improve’
Norris won a thrilling qualifying battle with Verstappen to claim just his second career pole position in Spain, but then almost immediately lost that advantage at the start of the race when he dropped from first to third behind victory rival and fast-starting George Russell. the first corner.
After losing important track positions, McLaren went on to extend Norris’ first two stints compared to Red Bull with the Briton coming back at Verstappen quickly on each occasion with fresher tires after pit stops before effectively running out of laps to try to overtake at the end of the race.
“McLaren certainly looks fast at the end of the stints, which we have seen in several races now,” noted Horner.
“So the degradation seems good. But it is somewhat balanced by the strategy and the overlap in tire life.
“We’ve done enough to get the job done and this is our seventh win out of 10 races. Four of them have been very difficult but, again, the team is working at the level we’re still doing, strategy and so on. Max again showed why he’s the champion the world – in the key, important moments given.
Horner added: “He’s fantastic under pressure, he’s always fantastic. Last year was the year of the unicorn, now it’s a more normal year. It’s not normal to win all the races, all the time, and we have to fight very, very hard for them and Max make a key difference.
“But we know where we need to improve. We have a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses and now we have enough to continue to improve our championship lead.”
Austrian GP schedule live Sky Sports F1
Thursday, June 27
12.30: Driver Press Conference
Friday June 28th
7.50am: Exercise F3
9.00: Exercise F2
11am: Austrian GP Practice (session starts at 11.30am)
12.55: F3 Qualifying
13.50: Qualifying F2
3pm: Austrian GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 3.30pm)*
Saturday 29 June
8.25: F3 Sprint
10am: Austrian GP (race starts at 11am)*
12.25: F2 Sprint
2pm: Austrian GP Qualifying
3pm: Austrian GP Qualifying
5pm: Ted’s Qualification Notebook
Sunday June 30th
07.25: F3 Feature Race
8.55: F2 Feature Race
12:30: Grand Prix Sunday: Austrian GP*
2pm: GRAND PRIX AUSTRIA*
16:00: Checkered flag: Austrian GP reaction*
5pm: Ted’s Notebook
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
F1’s triple-header continues at the Austrian Grand Prix this week – with the Sprint format returning at the Red Bull Ring. Watch every session live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday’s big race at 2pm. Stream every F1 race and more with Sports Month Membership NOW – No contract, cancel anytime