Lando Norris displayed some spectacular moves during his drive in Interlagos last weekend. Following a disappointing start from P7, he rocketed up to P2 in the first corner, Still, his performance was not enough to oust three-time champion and eventual race winner Max Verstappen. Because of this failure, Allard Kalff, a Viaplay analyst, has heavily criticized the McLaren driver.
The McLaren driver tried to close the gap to Verstappen in the initial stages and was only 0.111 seconds behind him at one point. However, in the end, the Red Bull driver prevailed. This resulted in Norris finishing P2 for the sixth time this season. Despite Norris finishing on the podium Allard Kalff was not amazed by the outcome.
Thank you Brazil 🇧🇷💚 pic.twitter.com/mk1VPZmmMu
— Lando Norris (@LandoNorris) November 5, 2023
Before the race, Norris was asked what he would do if he passed Verstappen at the start. The Bristol native said something that Kalff didn’t like. The 23-year-old admitted that he would just let Verstappen pass instead of fighting. To this, the F1 analyst responded in the Viaplay program, ” What kind of racing driver are you?”
Kalff wasn’t impressed with Norris’ approach because, in his opinion, a driver’s primary objective should always be to keep striving and win. On top of that, Kalff provided a testimonial highlighting Fernando Alonso’s incredible run in Sao Paolo, where the 42-year-old overtook Perez in the last lap despite the former being in a subpar vehicle.
To put it briefly, Kalff wanted Norris to learn from Alonso, who made sure that AMR23 had every last bit of energy to secure the podium place.
Following Lando Norris ‘ Brazil performance, Red Bull identifies McLaren as their closest rival
In the middle of the season, McLaren went through one of the biggest turnarounds. It’s interesting to note that the crew has put in a lot of effort to maintain that momentum and assist the drivers to succeed. Considering this, McLaren has established itself as Red Bull’s only formidable rival this season.
An illustration of this is clear in Christian Horner’s remarks. He states that following McLaren’s performance in Brazil, Red Bull is particularly wary of them as the season draws toa close. According to Motorsports.com. Horner said, “I think there was definitely a race. In the end it was reasonably straightforward. But McLaren definitely have been, over the last few races, our closest competitor.”
Later, Verstappen seemed to agree with Horner’s evaluation as well, stating that although everything seemed to be neat and tidy from the outside, there were times throughout the race when Norris put him under more pressure.
The 26-year-old said, “Maybe it looks fully easy from the outside. But I think for most of every stint, Lando was matching my lap times.”
Despite spending a substantial amount of time chasing Verstappen, McLaren failed to overcome them. Now that there are just two races remaining, it will be interesting to see if the Woking-based team can end the season by finally winning a race.
