Lando Norris has responded to Max Verstappen’s claim that he would have wrapped up the title far earlier if he had the opportunity himself to enjoy McLaren’s 2025 dominance, labelling the Dutchman’s remarks as “talking nonsense”.
Ahead of the season’s penultimate round, in which Norris could seal the championship if he wins the Qatar Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver was asked whether he thinks about the possibility of going into 2026 with five titles – he has a 25-point gap to overcome in order to remain in the fight beyond this weekend.
“Five is better than four,” he answered candidly. “If it doesn’t happen, it’s not going to change my life. Fine, great if I win another one, but to be realistic, we are still in this fight because of other people’s failures, not because of – if you look at the whole of the season – what we did.
“Yes, we did really well. We have really maximised pretty much all of the races. If we had been in the position of how dominant a car they [McLaren] had, the championship would have been over a long time ago.”
As a team, McLaren blew their rivals away this year, securing the Teams’ Championship at the Singapore Grand Prix with six rounds still to go. And despite Mercedes and Red Bull’s recent stronger performances, the Woking outfit’s early dominance means they still have over 330 points more than both of their nearest competitors.
However, the battle for the drivers’ title has unfolded differently, with the lead changing hands after Oscar Piastri’s form fell away in the second part of the season. What was a deficit of over 100 points for Verstappen after Zandvoort rapidly decreased, leaving him mathematically still in contention.
However, Norris was nevertheless quick to dispute Verstappen’s claim that in another world where he had the same performance as McLaren, he would have already won his fifth title.
Speaking after the Sprint, in which Norris kept the Dutchman behind him to take P3, he said: “Max is very welcome to say everything he wants, to be honest. He’s kind of earned the right. You know, he’s won four World Championships. I have a lot of respect and I think that gives anyone a lot of credit.
“He’s achieved an incredible amount – more than anyone generally dreams of achieving. So, you know, Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things, but there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about.
“It’s also Red Bull’s way of going about things, this kind of aggressive nature and, yeah, just talking nonsense a lot of the time. So it depends if you want to listen to it and talk about it – like you love to – or you do what we do as a team, which is just kind of keep our heads down, keep focused. So maybe he would have done, but he hasn’t so far, and he keeps trying.”
Norris could win his first World Championship in Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix – and there are a myriad of ways he could do it, but the most straightforward is taking the chequered flag first.
That task has been made more difficult after Piastri took pole position for Sunday’s race as Norris aborted his final attempt and settled for second place, with Verstappen set to start third. Overtaking is not the easiest around the Lusail International Circuit, so the opening lap represents the Briton’s best chance of taking the lead.
Asked what happened on his second lap in Q3, he said: “I don’t know. I just got a bit of understeer and I was going to go off so I had to abort which is a shame, but it’s the way it is. Oscar did a good lap and drove well and has been driving well all weekend. Nothing to complain about, just didn’t do the lap. I’m still P2 for tomorrow.
“The first couple of laps are always opportunities for everyone, but after that I think it’s probably going to be pretty straightforward for everyone.
“Tonight we’ll review some things and see what I can do better than I did this morning. Otherwise, I think we’re in a good position. The car’s been feeling good and I was much happier today than yesterday, so that’s progress but it’s a long race tomorrow.”
