Lando Norris was catching up with Max Verstappen throughout the 2024 season despite not even being a title challenger to him in the opening rounds. As McLaren’s car improved on pace, Norris joined the fight at the front, but the expectations of a championship charge also put pressure on him.
This was evident when he started to make mistakes while fighting Verstappen wheel-to-wheel. Apparently, the #4 driver has had 30 track limit violations during races, the highest of all drivers in 2024. Meanwhile, Verstappen is way down this list in P12 with just 17 violations, per a statistical post on the Formula 1 subreddit.
In the second half of the season, Norris was pushing flat out at every race to reduce Verstappen‘s championship lead, which was over 80 points at one stage. The Briton could only manage to bring it down to 44 points in Brazil.
But that turned out to be a weekend when he lost a huge chunk of points to the Red Bull driver, and effectively lost the championship. The track limit violations were a natural effect of Norris pushing hard for the drivers’ championship.
And he even paid the price for it in Austin with a five-second penalty, when during an intense battle for P3, Norris went off track to overtake his title rival. While there was a lot of debate around Verstappen forcing him off the track, the Dutchman was smart in exploiting the gray area of the sporting regulations.
Norris naturally received this bitterly, having lost points in the US GP weekend. Now, Verstappen naturally had his track limit violations too but he avoided those warnings and penalties that would have impacted his championship battle, unlike Norris.
Verstappen was the better driver in 2024
Norris had the fastest car for the majority of the 2024 season. But Verstappen maximized his car’s potential — which was deteriorating with several handling issues — to keep the McLaren man at bay. This helped him keep a healthy points advantage in the drivers’ standings till the business end of the season.
Moreover, Norris faltered on several occasions to put Verstappen under pressure. Races in Canada, Spain, Britain, Italy, and the USA could have seen Norris triumph and the deficit in the championship could’ve been much smaller, perhaps even helping the Briton take the lead!
Unfortunately, his poor race starts and lack of aggressive intent during an on-track battle coupled with McLaren’s occasional strategic errors cost Norris his maiden world championship. Heading into 2025, as the #4 driver gears up for another title challenge, he won’t have scope to repeat these mistakes.
