Guenther Steiner has been saying for a while that the 2024 championship is not a given for either Red Bull or Max Verstappen. After the dominant performance in Zandvoort, the former Haas team principal is not only backing McLaren but also Norris to win the championship.
On ‘The Red Flags’ podcast, Steiner was asked how he sees the drivers’ championship unfolding in the nine remaining races. While the American-Italian believes that Norris is a little low on confidence given his 70-point gap with the Dutchman, he also thinks that the odds are stacked equally between the two drivers.
Steiner believes that Verstappen will not necessarily be able to finish second in all the races Norris wins, while also thinking that the Briton won’t win every single race. However, with the performance advantage McLaren now has over Red Bull they should be in contention to win most if not all the remaining races. He said,
“I think he [Norris] said, ‘Oh, I don’t think I can get there’. Lando, I think you can get there buddy because it’s like, Max will not always finish second, neither will Lando Norris win all the races, I know that as well. But if he gets a little bit lucky or if he doesn’t get unlucky he will be fine and it will be a big battle, it’s not a done deal.'”
And while on the topic, Steiner also gave what he thinks are the odds of who will win the championship. For the drivers’ title, he gave both Verstappen and Norris a 50/50 chance, and for the constructors’ title, he gave a 90/10 chance in favor of McLaren.
As for Norris, he should have been beaming with confidence after beating the Dutchman at his home Grand Prix. However, that wasn’t the case as the #4 driver stated at the Italian GP presser that the Zandvoort win has not given him a lot of confidence. This was perhaps a downplaying statement as Norris was quite ecstatic and even used Verstappen‘s catchphrase after winning the Dutch GP.
Daniel Ricciardo believes Norris is growing in confidence
While Steiner believes, based on Norris’ statements, that he is low on confidence, his former teammate Ricciardo is of a completely different opinion. The Aussie believes that Norris is quite high on confidence and it will only keep growing from there.
He referred to Norris’ “Simply Lovely” radio call at Zandvoort to prove his point. Verstappen has been habitual to using this catchphrase after having a dominant race win over the past two seasons. So, Ricciardo feels that Norris using the same to fittingly turn the tables won’t go down well with the three-time champion.
Ricciardo stated, “Lando, I think his confidence is growing the longer he spends time in the sport and the more success he has. Very confident to throw out a ‘simply lovely’ after the race.” The Aussie added, “I know how competitive Max is. He would not have taken that very nicely or too well, so we’ll see how he responds this weekend.”
Time will tell when Ricciardo’s prediction of Verstappen bouncing back comes true. In Monza, the McLarens once again look solid with Norris leading the way as Verstappen and Red Bull haven’t really shown signs of matching them so far in Friday practice.
