Lando Norris faced immense criticism following his performance at the United States GP last season when he seemingly did not push Max Verstappen to the limit despite having the opportunity to do so. Many people at the time speculated that Norris went easy on the Dutchman because of their ‘friendship’. However, the Briton has now cleared the air by stating that his friendship with Verstappen played no role in him going easy on the Red Bull driver.
“They say, it’s because he’s friends with Max and all that stuff. Which has nothing to do with anything. I would rather beat someone if I’m friends with him than if I’m not,” explained Norris in an interview with Autosport (as quoted by f1maximaal.nl).
The 24-year-old faced such criticism after some believed that he did not fight Verstappen as hard as he fought Lewis Hamilton, for example. However, Norris believes that his decision to not battle Verstappen was a strategic choice.
The McLaren driver revealed that he did not fight the Dutchman simply because it was almost impossible for him to keep the three-time champion behind him. Norris believed that the RB19 had much lesser tire degradation and as a result. Hence, it was pointless to fight with Verstappen for position.
Norris then concluded his remarks by stating that Verstappen is in fact one of the last drivers he would want to go easy on. The Bristol-born driver believes that since they are friends, he would want to have the bragging rights over the 26-year-old.
While Norris would have wanted to have the chance to battle with Verstappen more often in the season that just went by, he did have an outstanding campaign nonetheless.
Lando Norris and McLaren had an outstanding 2023 campaign
Lando Norris ended 2023 by finishing sixth in the championship with 205 points, just one point behind both fourth-placed Fernando Alonso and fifth-placed Charles Leclerc. Norris also grabbed seven of the nine podiums for McLaren and played a crucial role in helping the Woking-based outfit to finish finish P4.
Similarly, Oscar Piastri had a brilliant rookie season in the other McLaren. In addition to his two podium finishes, Piastri also won the F1 sprint in Qatar. Since McLaren had such a brilliant finish to their 2023 season, their hopes are high that they can perform even better in 2024.
Most of their team members have been working extremely hard during the ongoing winter break to produce a stronger car for the upcoming new campaign. Their hope is that they will be able to reduce the huge deficit to Red Bull and fight for more race wins in 2024.
