Lando Norris mentioned any hopes for him to chase down Max Verstappen and win this 12 months’s Method 1 drivers’ championship had been “a bit far-fetched” as he accepted official honors for ending as runner-up.
Verstappen had a snug lead after successful seven of the primary 10 races this season, earlier than Norris threatened a problem because the Crimson Bull driver went 10 races and not using a victory. Norris had lower the deficit to 47 factors — nonetheless almost two race victories — heading into the race weekend at Interlagos, however a Verstappen win within the moist all however ended the battle and Norris believes it wasn’t practical to count on him to overturn such a giant margin.
“I used to be by no means shut sufficient to Max,” Norris mentioned on the FIA Prize Giving in Rwanda. “I feel if anybody thought I used to be going to get it, that was in all probability a bit far-fetched. However on the identical time, we tried for so long as attainable — I attempted.”
Norris received the ultimate spherical in Abu Dhabi to safe the constructors’ championship for McLaren, and CEO Zak Brown says each he and teammate Oscar Piastri had been central to that achievement.
“Andrea [Stella, team principal] has completed an unbelievable job main this racing staff, we’ve two superior racing drivers, as we’ve mentioned from the phrase go, and all of the women and men at McLaren have completed an exquisite job,” Brown mentioned.
“I feel to go all the way down to the wire, towards Ferrari — for those who had one staff to select to go all the way down to the final lap with, Ferrari could be it — and so they did an unbelievable job. They saved us trustworthy the entire approach via.”
From Stella’s perspective, a primary constructors’ championship success as a staff principal is a brand new expertise after being a part of the Ferrari dominance of the mid-2000s.
“It’s completely different from many factors of view,” Stella mentioned. “It’s completely different as a result of this championship means taking McLaren to success after 26 years. So, a very long time with out celebrations.
“It’s completely different for me personally — a very completely different function — and it’s completely different as a result of it’s unprecedented how quickly we advanced from being final final 12 months after the primary couple of races. We had zero factors, final within the classification, and now 666 and world champions.”
