Lando Norris made his debut in 2019 but despite being dubbed as one of F1’s biggest talents, the McLaren driver remains winless. His streak continued after a P2 finish at the Chinese GP, but a defiant Norris couldn’t be happier with his result, given the circumstances.
Max Verstappen dominated proceedings from the get-go in Shanghai. The Red Bull ace qualified on pole position and coasted home to take P1, even performing an audacious power slide on the final lap for the sake of it. Norris followed the Dutchman in second and conceded to his brilliance. After the race, when Nico Rosberg asked him if he considered the P2 finish to be a win, Norris said,
“Whenever i finish behind Max it feels like a win so.”
nico: does it still feel like a win?
lando: whenever i finish behind max it feels like a win sooo— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) April 21, 2024
By saying this, Norris acknowledges that is almost impossible to get the better of Verstappen currently. The 26-year-old is driving the most dominant car on the grid. Plus, he is making close to no mistakes, which prevents his rivals from getting any sort of advantage over him.
Norris meanwhile, is driving for McLaren, a team on the ascendency. But it isn’t there yet. The Woking-based outfit has a lot of ground to cover before it can think of challenging Red Bull, or before Norris can actually compete with Verstappen for race wins.
Max Verstappen’s dominance continues
Verstappen started the Chinese GP weekend strong, with a Sprint race victory despite starting P4 on the grid. Just hours later, he grabbed the pole position (his fifth in a row) and on Sunday, he got his fourth win of the season.
What a team pic.twitter.com/fdwWvzLg7c
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 21, 2024
Verstappen is now 25 points ahead of second-placed Sergio Perez in the standings and is starting to build a gap. Other drivers challenging him for the title seems very unlikely heading into the next few rounds. The Red Bull ace is widely tipped to be a four-time world champion come the end of the season.
Other teams, however, continue to throw everything they have at Red Bull and Verstappen. The next race of the season takes place in Miami, where Ferrari and McLaren are expected to bring in upgrades that could bolster their performance.
