Ex-McLaren Mechanic Explains the Massive Gap Between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen ‘Means Nothing’

The biggest headline of the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix was Lando Norris winning the race with a crushing margin of 22.8 seconds over his championship rival, Max Verstappen. However, former McLaren mechanic, Marc Priestley believes that the gap between the two drivers means nothing in the larger context of the race.

At first, it might look impressive that McLaren was now able to pull the biggest victory margin of the season over Verstappen considering where the Woking outfit were on performance relative to Red Bull at the start of this season. The MCL38 has become the outright fastest car over the past few races.

However, Priestley put forward a different perspective. He thinks that that gap was as big as it was because both Norris and Verstappen were running a very different race.

“Lando had built up a pitstop gap towards the end of that Grand Prix which is a sensible thing to do given the pace he had just in case of any eventuality where he might need it”, he said in his Dutch GP debrief video on YouTube.

“Max Verstappen on the flip side, had pretty much settled into second place. He knew he couldn’t challenge Lando so he backed off, he was conserving things he was nursing his car around to the end, also a totally sensible thing to do. So the actual gap means nothing”, Priestley added.

Even Martin Brundle claimed that Verstappen deliberately backed off in the latter part of the Dutch GP to give the Red Bull factory a hurry up about improving the RB20’s performance.

Per the former McLaren mechanic, Red Bull should be worried about the fact that the Woking team now has enough of an advantage over them to mount a reasonable challenge for both championships.

Red Bull are under serious threat in both championships

Red Bull is already under a considerable threat of losing the constructors’ championship in 2024 mainly because they are fighting with one hand tied behind their back. Sergio Perez has only scored 36 points in the last nine races which is disappointing, to say the least.

According to Priestley, Red Bull not only needs to fix the performance of the RB20 but also needs to start scoring more points with both their drivers if they want to protect their lead in both championships.

If Perez continues to finish in the lower fringes of the points, McLaren has a driver lineup strong enough to use their improved car performance and compromise Verstappen’s results race after race. Moreover, not having a teammate close behind him could really hurt the three-time champion’s title defense.