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Barring a miracle, Lando Norris will now lose the 2024 Formula 1 world championship fight to Max Verstappen.
So what does he need to do better in 2025 if it turns into a rematch between them?
Mark Hughes, Ben Anderson and Edd Straw debated just that on The Race F1 Podcast this week.
RACECRAFT AGGRESSION
Verstappen may have had plenty of criticism for over-aggressive racing this season, but Norris has also been accused of being too timid or indecisive, even if his team boss Andrea Stella has praised/backed his approach.
Does Norris have to adopt a more Verstappen-style attitude in battle next year?
Mark Hughes: “The recurring criticism of Lando this year is that he’s not been aggressive enough.
“There is a certain logic in saying ‘OK, I’m not going to yield next time Max adopts the 'yield or we crash' approach’ and I’m going to have the crash and keep having the crash until Max learns there’s no point in racing me that way.
“But that wasn’t a situation Norris could adopt this season because by the time his car became competitive - at round six in Miami - Max already had a big points lead. So any collision between them would always favour Max.
“There’s no two ways about it: Max exploited that. And Lando knew he had to avoid contact above all else.
“So although those two roles look like the bully and the bullied, they were also the championship leader and the chaser who couldn’t afford non-finishes.
“But is there a sort of psychological barrier there for Lando in the future over adopting that no-compromise approach needed to race Verstappen on equal terms?
“I think it would require a step up from him. Not to the extent of initiating things, like making no attempt at making a corner in order to get past or defend. I don’t think his racing etiquette would ever allow him to do that.
"But at the very least I think it requires him to sharpen up on his car placement in these battles, going in with the full knowledge and expectation of how Max will race him.
“I think we saw with Lando’s Turn 4 move in Mexico that he’s already begun doing that, because he was absolutely as hard and ruthless there as he needed to be in how far he pincered Max in and he left it up to Max to see if he would run him out wide - and sure enough, he did.
“But his initial placement there was spot on, and that’s exactly how he’s going to have to race him. It was a bit more savvy than his dice in Austria, for example.”
OFF-TRACK ASSERTIVENESS
Verstappen’s blunt radio exchanges with engineer Gianpiero Lambiase regularly raise eyebrows but it seems to be how they get the best out of each other.
While Norris’s radio traffic isn’t always serene, it’s another area where he doesn’t come across as assertive as Verstappen.
Ben Anderson: “One thing we haven’t seen him do yet that Max does a lot is be harder on his team and take more of a lead from inside the car.
“I feel he’s still a bit too passive in terms of how he deals with McLaren and the key decisions and trying to turn a race in his favour when there’s a marginal call to be made.
“You could criticise Max for being too assertive and too abrasive, but that’s the culture that Red Bull has allowed and it feels it’s productive.
“Obviously there’s more than one way to do that, because it’s a tricky psychological game that’s related to how other people perform as well.
"But Lando doesn’t feel as assertive in how he works with the team as Max is, and it’s a question of whether with a more equal start to a season and a bit of learning, will Norris be closer to Max in that regard? Or is it a fundamentally different way of doing things and Max’s is more effective?”
ARE STARTS REALLY A PROBLEM?
Norris lost the lead on lap one after his first seven F1 poles across grands prix and sprints, leading to plenty of criticism of his starts.
But our panel feels Norris’s reputation for poor starts is misleading and more a reflection of the McLaren and Red Bull’s relative start set-ups than anything either driver is doing.
Edd Straw: “His starts generally are pretty good. If you look at overall start performance through the field, he’s up there. There’s a lot going on with the starts and the set-up and a lot of data crunching. It’s not just the driver.”
Mark Hughes: “Max’s reaction times are usually slower than Lando’s. I think it was Carlos Sainz who made the point that on low-grip surfaces the Red Bull is just dynamite off the grid. I think it’s more technical.”
IS HE JUST UNLUCKY TO BE UP AGAINST VERSTAPPEN?
“I’d argue Norris is already a world championship calibre driver, but everything’s relative and he’s not been quite at the level of Verstappen,” said Hughes.
“But there have been drivers that have won world titles with a lower level of overall performance than this.”
So is Norris a great driver just doomed to have to take on an even greater one - and potentially unable to topple his main rival as a result?
That’s the general conclusion our panel reached.
Ben Anderson: “Judging his peaks as a driver this year - and those performances where everything’s come together like Zandvoort and Singapore - Norris has looked on absolutely the right level. So there’s no question in terms of performance as a driver, he can absolutely do it.
“But as ever in Formula 1, you need all those other ingredients to come together at the right time. And against a driver as good as Max, you can’t afford to hand him an advantage.”
Mark Hughes: “If what we’re asking is ‘what will it take to beat Verstappen?’ then I honestly think you’d need a machinery advantage to do that. Probably only a small one.
“But Verstappen’s so all-encompassing in his strengths that he’s almost impossible to beat in equal machinery at the moment.
“I think Lando is unfortunate that he’s got his good car at a time when Verstappen is at his absolute peak.
“Max is a winning animal, no questions in his head, just desire. And I feel Lando will always have questions.
“A lot of previous world champions have been fortunate that they haven’t had opposition of the calibre of Verstappen.
“There are always great drivers throughout the history of the sport. But to get someone so bulletproof is very, very rare.”
Edd Straw: “As a driver, in terms of pace, as a technician behind the wheel, Norris is very intelligent in the way he approaches things, he’s very good at adapting his style whether on a single push lap or managing tyres over a long stint, he’s very, very clever, he’s got all the tricks in the tool kit.
“But has he got what Verstappen’s got, which is this ironclad ruthless certainty? Which is a powerful weapon when you harness it with the fact that Verstappen is also a fantastic driver in every way.
“All things being equal, I would always back Verstappen over Norris.
“But I think I’d back Verstappen over almost any driver in grand prix racing history!
“He’s that good.”
