Revisiting Lando Norris’ Lewis Hamilton Comments That He Made A Year Before Mercedes Driver’s Title Fight With Max Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen had a grueling fight for the championship in 2021 that went down to the wire. However, a year before their championship battle, Hamilton cruised to his seventh world championship. It was in 2020 that Lando Norris undermined Hamilton’s efforts to win the championship.

After the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix, Norris had said, “He [Lewis Hamilton] is in a car which should win every race, basically. He has to beat one or two other drivers, that’s it.”

Not so easy after all is it? https://t.co/dIZixWMcc4 pic.twitter.com/CHGPqjHs2i

— Tom Speight (@Tom_Speight98) August 3, 2024

While Norris felt so back then, he may have changed his outlook now, considering that he has failed to deliver himself this year despite arguably having the fastest car on the grid. The McLaren driver said, “At the minute, I simply don’t have what it takes because I’ve clearly made too many mistakes.”

While Norris has undoubtedly shown nothing but respect for Hamilton over the years, the #4 driver may have underestimated the trials and tribulations it takes to get to the very top of the sport back in 2020. That being said, now that he has machinery capable of reaching there, the #4 driver has to do what it takes to become a world champion.

McLaren needs to fix Norris’ biggest Achilles’ heel

The 2024 season has seen an unsettling trend emerging in Norris’ driving. The Briton has failed to make up any place in terms of his starting grid position. Rather, in seven races so far this season, the #4 driver has instead tumbled back down the field.

Fun Fact:

Lando Norris is the only driver to not gain a single place on lap 1 in all of the 17 races this season.

There have been 7 races where he’s lost positions on lap 1

There have been 10 races where he’s stayed in his position on lap 1

Never even gained a single place pic.twitter.com/RioEhwCitc

— ۟ (@tracingpoint) July 31, 2024

Former F1 boss Guenther Steiner even went as far as claiming it to be an impediment to his championship ambitions. While the Italian engineer hopes that Norris can rectify this area of his driving, he was still surprised at how Norris was still making such “silly little mistakes.”