Lando Norris and McLaren have quickly become the closest rivals to the prowess of Max Verstappen and Red Bull. Fighting the reigning champions each weekend, Norris approaches races with newfound confidence. The same pace and confidence have combined to become a cause for double concern for the team’s rivals.
Discussing the progress made by McLaren over the years, Norris detailed how his team was “horrible” once. They have since improved and are now one of the front-runners. On the episode of F1: Beyond the Grid podcast ahead of the Austrian GP, Norris said,
“Now we’ve caught up with these teams who have been there for five, six years, even longer, who have been performing at this level every single race weekend. And now we’re here. Now we’re like, OK, we have to compete against these guys.”
McLaren is quickly closing down on the gap to P2 in the constructors championship, with Ferrari currently leading them by 23 points. Meanwhile, Lando Norris (P2) has his sights set on chasing Verstappen, who leads the driver’s championship by 81 points, following the race in Spielberg last weekend.
Lando Norris was a man on a mission in Sunday’s race
The McLaren driver charged up the order from P17 to P5! #F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/vI8H1JTK8R
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 30, 2023
Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ championship standings has a lot to do with McLaren dropping points earlier in the season. But the Woking-based team has since made a significant leap. However, their forward momentum might soon take a hit, given Red Bull’s upcoming plans.
Red Bull ready to respond to Lando Norris
Having lost a lot of ground to McLaren lately, Red Bull is looking to bounce back and dominate the grid again. Looking to achieve the same at the earliest, Helmut Marko revealed (as per Formu1a.uno) that his team will feature an upgrade in the upcoming race in Silverstone. “We’ll hit back, We’ll bring an upgrade.”
: Marko announces Red Bull updates for Silverstone, confident Verstappen and Perez can strike back at the British GP. “We’ll bring an upgrade,” says Marko, emphasizing their goal is the world title. He also dismisses rumors of Verstappen moving to Mercedes.#F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/a10S61wIys
— F1 Naija (@f1_naija) July 2, 2024
Also wary of a resurgence from Mercedes, the Austrian team wants to retake momentum before things go out of hand. While Verstappen continues to lead the drivers’ standings, the future upgrades from each team will play a key role in determining how the season unravels from here.
Furthermore, the coming together of Norris and Verstappen in Austria could also give way to an intense rivalry taking shape in the remainder of the season.
