Lando Norris’ admission over Lewis Hamilton ‘win every race’ remarks
McLaren driver Lando Norris has admitted it has been “tough” having the best car on the grid in F1 2024 despite questioning Lewis Hamilton’s success with Mercedes back in 2020.
Norris has enjoyed the most productive season of his career in F1 2024, collecting his first victory in Miami and adding two more wins in the Netherlands and Singapore.
Lewis Hamilton comments come back to bite Lando Norris
Despite having the fastest car at his disposal for much of the year, however, Norris has fallen short of the title with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen crowned World Champion for the fourth time in Las Vegas last month.
Norris is not yet guaranteed to finish second in the Drivers’ standings, with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc just eight points behind entering this weekend’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
In 2020, Norris appeared to question the validity of Hamilton’s achievements at the height of his dominance with Mercedes, claiming his compatriot only “has to beat one of two other drivers” with a “car which should win every race.”
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Norris has now distanced himself from those comments, insisting that he would “never” think it is easy to win with the fastest car.
And he reiterated his stance that the McLaren MCL38 has not been as dominant as many believe, with his pace advantage over the opposition relatively small.
He told The Race: “First of all, I would never think that [it’s easy to win with the fastest car]! For anyone who knows me, that’s definitely not how I think.
But I would say it’s as tough as I’ve imagined, because so many things can still easily go against you even when you have the best car.
“Make one mistake in a Q3 lap, you’re not on pole when you should have been.
“You don’t have a perfect start when the guy who starts P2 does a perfect start, you’re P2 when you shouldn’t have been.
“There’s been a couple when we were so dominant, like Zandvoort, it doesn’t matter if you made the mistakes at the beginning. You can come back through and you can still dominate and easily win a race.
“But when people think we’ve had the most dominant car ever, I’ve been on pole by three thousandths or five thousandths or two hundredths and those positions are positions that just stay for the rest of the race.
“I’ve always known that – it’s just the harsh reality of when you’re there and you’re actually living that situation.”
Norris’s comments come after he dismissed Verstappen’s claim that he would have sealed the F1 2024 title “even earlier” if he were driving the McLaren this year, with Red Bull’s RB20 losing its way after a strong start to the season.
Norris claimed even Verstappen would have struggled to close down a such a huge early points deficit to the Championship leader, with Verstappen’s run of four wins from the first five races giving him a 52-point advantage over the McLaren driver.
Responding to Verstappen’s statement, Norris told the Telegraph: “No, definitely not.
“No one ever in the history of Formula 1 has come back from the size of deficit I had. No one. Ever.
“And there have been much bigger swings of performance of cars in the past than there has been now.
“The advantage they [Red Bull] had in the beginning of the season over everyone was way more than we’ve had.
“I think if it was any other driver – well, not any other driver, but if it wasn’t Max and Red Bull – I think the chances [of winning the title] would have been much higher.”
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