“Too Many 2nd Places This Year”: Tired of Being Second Best, Lando Norris Puts a Target on Max Verstappen’s Back

With Red Bull enjoying life at the top of the constructor’s championship from Day 1, a McLaren resurgence in the latter half of the season has added a layer of excitement for the upcoming season. With extremely efficient and on-time upgrades, the Woking-based team has quickly become the second-fastest team on the grid and wants to vie for the championship next season with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri as their drivers.

 

Enjoying his team’s resurgence, Norris has become the man to watch out for, having secured five podium finishes in the last six races. As such, the McLaren driver has also become the most consistent driver in the back end of the season, overtaking the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari drivers. However, a race win still eludes the Briton, and the multiple second-place finishes have added fuel to the fire burning within him to register his first-ever F1 race win, as seen in an interview clip uploaded on X by user Manouk⁴.

“We’ve been very close the last few weekends. I’ve had a lot of, too many, but a lot of second places this year. There’s just one guy and one team in the way, but we’re getting there.”

Speaking further, Norris was full of confidence in his team and said a win was definitely coming McLaren’s way. He added that all of the members of the team are continuing to push hard and get the best out of the car to “keep up the McLaren name” and bring home another World Championship.

Lando Norris tipped to be the driver who can beat Max Verstappen fair and sqaure

Having quickly risen through the ranks in the F1 world, Norris might be able to oust Lewis Hamilton from the top three in the driver’s standings with a gap of 31 points to close in two races. Irrespective of where Norris finishes this season, former F1 driver Timo Glock believes the Briton has enough raw pace to challenge Max Verstappen for the driver’s world title. Glock admits Norris has a tendency to crumble under pressure, which we saw in the little mistakes he made when Oscar Piastri brought a fresh challenge.

However, the former Jordan driver believes Norris is smart enough to not make the same mistakes twice and has the pace to make the title bout much more interesting than it was this year. Glock believes McLaren needs to continue bringing in the right upgrade package to their car so that they can help Norris stay in the fight, and given their recent upgrades, the German is confident that the Woking outfit will do a good job.