There is a seminal debate in Formula 1: what is more important, the car or driver? While some would correctly assume it is a balance of both, most believe the car makes the difference.
Lando Norris and the McLaren F1 Team seem determined to prove those fans wrong.
The United States Grand Prix summed up McLaren’s 2024 season. Despite starting on pole position, Norris failed to defend his lead against Max Verstappen going into the first corner. Although Verstappen’s aggressive move forced both cars off the track, the Red Bull driver rejoined the track in second position while Lando fell down to fourth. Thankfully, Norris’s stellar tire conservation allowed him to pit six laps later than the Red Bull team. With tires six lap fresher, Lando was soon right behind Verstappen. A five-lap scrap between the two title contenders culminated on lap 52 where Norris attempted an outside pass on Verstappen into turn 12. However, the tight corner combined with Verstappen’s entry speed meant both cars were forced off circuit. This time, Norris came out ahead. However, Norris received a controversial five second time penalty for overtaking off-track—gifting Max third place—and extending his championship lead over Lando.
Despite McLaren’s lack of pace in Austin, the Woking-based outfit have had the fastest car since round 6 in Miami. That performance is reflected in the Constructors Championship. McLaren currently lead the way 54 points ahead of Red Bull after the Mexico City Grand Prix. However, Lando’s title challenge has been less impressive. Despite qualifying on pole 6 times this year, Norris only has 3 wins, bringing him 4 short of Verstappen’s win tally in 2024. What is even more damning is that Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also has 3 wins in what has been the third fastest car on average. Norris and McLaren have no one to blame but themselves.
Lando Norris is by no means a bad driver. At 24 years old, he has claimed twenty-five podiums, thirteen of them in inferior machinery, and has been heralded as one of Formula 1’s most consistent drivers. Not only has Norris scored points in 79% of his 124 race starts, but in just six seasons, he has accumulated 948 points, making him the highest scoring driver in McLaren’s 58-year history. While many would argue those stats come with the caveat that there are now more races per season with more points on offer each race, Lando’s consistency against legends like Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton has many pundits lauding the Brit as a future world champion.
However, in his first serious title challenge, it is safe to say that Lando has not met expectations. Alongside his lackluster win tally, Lando has been haunted by two stats: out of his six pole positions, he has failed to lead after lap one on five of those occasions and up until round seventeen in Azerbaijan, Lando Norris was the only driver on the grid to not gain a position on a race start. When you are driving the fastest car on the grid, those stats are unacceptable. Combined with high-profile errors like a lap 1 excursion into the gravel trap in Belgium, a Q1 exit in Baku, and nearly crashing twice in Singapore while leading the race by twenty seconds to second-place, the narrative around Norris has flipped on its head.
The blame cannot be placed on Lando alone though. McLaren’s race operations have been just as prone to errors . At their home Grand Prix, the British team pestered Lando with questions regarding tire strategy while the home hero navigated changeable, rain-soaked conditions—even making the wrong call to switch onto degradable soft tires—turning a potential win into a third-place finish behind second-place Verstappen. In Italy, when Lando’s teammate Oscar Piastri took the lead from him, McLaren infamously instated their “papaya rules,” preventing Norris from challenging Piastri and maximizing on Verstappen’s poor qualifying position. The most egregious sin was the emotional blackmail over team radio at the Hungarian Grand Prix. After an ill-timed pit stop allowed Norris to inherit the lead from his teammate, the McLaren pit wall tried to convince Lando to swap positions with Piastri, using arguments such as “you will only win this championship with Oscar” and “think of the team.” Eventually, Norris did return the position to Piastri and McLaren managed an incredible feat: by giving up seven additional points to Lando’s title charge and coloring Piastri’s maiden win, the team had screwed up the 1-2 finish that should have resulted in Lando at the top, not Piastri to gain ground on Verstappen.
McLaren might have the edge in car performance over Red Bull, but in order to win a championship, you cannot be compliant with just doing enough, and the team might soon come to realize that fact. Thanks to mid-season upgrades, Ferrari have now taken over as McLaren’s main constructors rivals. With back-to-back wins in Austin and Mexico, twenty-nine points is all that stands between McLaren and the second place Scuderia. McLaren are probably wishing they had not missed those opportunities to build a bigger gap. Missed opportunities especially cannot be afforded against Verstappen.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull have set a ruthless standard over the past few seasons. This is the team that won 21 out of 22 races in 2023—nineteen of them won by Verstappen—which easily powered him to his third consecutive driver’s championship. That form extended into 2024, with Verstappen and Red Bull winning seven of the opening ten races, including two sprint race wins in China and Miami. Strategy, pit stops, and driver worked in harmony to the point where it was inconceivable that they would ever be beaten. Even with the Red Bull RB20 faltering in performance, Verstappen’s tenacity is taking his car to undeserving positions, keeping his title hopes alive. When calculating both Norris and Verstappen’s point totals since Miami, Lando has only outscored Max by twelve points. McLaren have done the hard task of building a fast car, yet Lando and McLaren have only been taking small chunks out of Verstappen’s lead. Yet in Austin, Max was able to extend his advantage, negating any progress Lando had made.
2024 is proof that a fast car does not guarantee a championship. Thankfully, with 4 races to go at the time of writing—with many points on offer—Norris might still have the chance to snatch the title from Max and defend McLaren’s constructors lead against Ferrari. However, I fear the damage has already been done.
