Norris highlights ‘farfetched’ Verstappen title fight belief

Lando Norris has insisted he was “never close enough” to F1 drivers’ champion Max Verstappen during their brief and ultimately distant title fight in the second half of the 2024 season.

The Briton reeled in the Red Bull driver over the summer and into the autumn, managing to reduce the gap to Verstappen to 44 points after the sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

However, that would be the closest he would get to the 27-year-old, who stormed to victory at Interlagos the following day from P17 on the grid, in what his considered the greatest of his now-63 grand prix wins.

Verstappen went on to clinch the title at the following round, in Las Vegas, before securing a final grand prix victory of the season at the Qatar Grand Prix, whilst Norris would triumph at the last race, in Abu Dhabi.

Having started the year with four wins in the opening five events, Verstappen and Red Bull’s form cooled considerably. The RB20 became difficult to set-up and balance, whilst the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes made significant performance gains.

Although the Dutchman would win three of the next five rounds, he would go victory-less until the weekend in Brazil, allowing Norris to close the gap.

However, many argued the championship fight between the two drivers had been somewhat manufactured, given the comfortable gap Verstappen enjoyed throughout, and the relative ease in which he eventually took his fourth F1 drivers’ crown.

Whilst that does not accurately reflect the increasing pressure Verstappen was under, given the extent to which his RB20 was out-classed and over-matched by the McLaren MCL38, it is a reality Norris agrees with.

The 25-year-old suggested it was “farfetched” for anyone to believe he could catch and overturn Verstappen’s points advantage in the closing rounds. The deficit come season’s end stood at 63 points.

“I was never close enough to Max [Verstappen],” Norris said at the end-of-season FIA prize-giving gala.

“I think if anyone thought I was gonna get it [the F1 drivers’ title], it was probably a little bit farfetched. But, at the same time, we tried for as long as possible.”