Amidst McLaren’s recent resurgence, rookie driver Oscar Piastri managed to take full advantage of his upgraded machinery and recorded the first win of his career in Qatar’s Sprint race. In stark contrast to this, Lando Norris hasn’t been able to register his first win yet despite coming close on more than one occasion. Now, ex-F1 champion Damon Hill revealed on the F1 Nation Podcast that he believes that Norris has to get his first victory at the United States GP weekend.
Throughout the four years that Norris has been with the Woking outfit, the team managed to win two races. Unfortunately, both of them were won by Norris’ teammate – the 2021 Italian GP by Daniel Ricciardo and the 2023 Qatar Sprint by Oscar Piastri.
As for Norris, he has been putting in consistently strong performances throughout his career, but the top step of the podium has evaded him every time. Hill believes that it is time now for Norris to put that record aside and register his first win.
Lando Norris urged to push for his first race win by Damon Hill
Damon Hill recently appeared in the F1 Nation podcast alongside Tom Clarkson, and the latter asked Hill to predict the podium places for the United States GP. Hill immediately mentioned that Norris should try to win the Sprint race if not the main race.
Hill said, “I think Lando’s got to win. Sprint? Lando? Race? It’s gotta be Max.” He also mentioned that Sergio Perez should also be aiming for a podium finish since his home race is coming up next, so he needs to find his form back soon.
Even though Hill believes that McLaren might be fast enough for Norris to try and claim the sprint win, Red Bull and, most importantly, Max Verstappen are still the favorites to win both the sprint and the feature race.
Mercedes can be in the mix for a race win at COTA
Another team that might find themselves in the mix for a potential race win would be Mercedes. After suffering a disappointing Qatar GP weekend, the team would be rocking up to the grid at Austin with new upgrades.
Director of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin, also recently mentioned that the team are looking forward to getting a good result at COTA. Therefore, McLaren would need to be cautious not to be over-ambitious and try to get the best possible results in Austin.
