A Max Verstappen masterclass saw the Dutchman come from P17 through to P1 on a historic day in Brazil. The Red Bull Racing drivers’ feat means that he now holds the record for wins from the most different number of grid positions. That tally now stands at 10 positions – having beaten Fernando Alonso’s record of 9. However, McLaren’s Lando Norris called the victory a lucky one in his post-race remarks to Sky Sports: ‘You take a gamble and it paid off for them. It’s not talent, it’s just luck.’
Such a sentence has not seemingly gone down well with the majority of F1 fans who have since been vocal about the fact that Verstappen sensationally carved his way from P17 to win for the first time since June. He did this without DRS and in a car that clearly was not the quickest on the grid on paper. Not only this but in changeable conditions he recorded 17 fastest lap 17 times and then in the final 29 laps, pulled out 19 seconds on the field – finishing 31 seconds ahead of Norris.
However, it needs to be remembered that post-race comments are said in the heat of the moment and may not always be fully considered but can still see soundbites become headlines. As such, the comments Norris made to the written press fleshed out his sentiment and showed that he was well aware that Verstappen was in a class above in Brazil. A hard reality for check for the man who started on pole and now finds himself 62 points behind Verstappen in this year’s F1 Drivers’ Championship.
McLaren’s title challenger explained that he lost position at the start (at the second time of asking after the aborted start) due to wheelspin and felt the left side of the track looked a bit better than the right side which he had started on – hence George Russell leading by the first corner. However, he had no complaints for his team choosing to pit him under the VSC.
McLaren fitted new intermediate tyres on Norris’ car on lap 29 whereas Red Bull and Alpine stayed out on track preferring track position before benefitting from a red flag period later in the race after a spin by Nico Hulkenberg. With the rules as they are at present, this allowed the eventual podium finishers to all have a free pitstop.
“I had the right time to box, it was the right thing, so no regrets, just unlucky.” explained Norris. “It’s a silly rule that no one agrees with, but you’ll always agree with it when it benefits you. Every driver said that they don’t agree with it and they wanted it changed, so it’s just unfortunate. But it’s a rule, you win some, you lose some, it benefited them [Red Bull] today, so well done to them.”
Having admitted the wheelspin error from the start of the race, Norris also regretted his performance at the rolling restart as he explained he locked the rears at that point. Nevertheless, having seen the pace of his Championship rival, Norris (who started on pole but finished sixth) made clear that he was struggling for pace. When asked if the team gave him too much wing, his remarks showed that was not an issue.
“No, if anything, wing was helping today,” Norris replied. “We weren’t quick enough. Max was easily quicker than us so I think if he went from the front, he probably would have lapped us. The pace was good. I think similar to George [Russell], but the Red Bull was way faster.
“It’s been an up and down weekend for sure. Not a lot more I could do. I’m sure George probably feels like he [could have] won the race today. He deserved it more than anyone else. I’d probably have finished third realistically, so it’s tough. Max probably would have come through anyway and probably beaten us, but… yeah, just unlucky for us. Nothing more than that. I made a couple of mistakes which I own up to and which cost me a couple of positions in the end.”
In summing up his race Norris said: “I did all I could today, that’s all, Max won the race, good on him, well done.”
This year has been the best in Norris’ career so far – regardless of the end of this season. McLaren are also well on their way to win the Constructors’ Championship – which would be a huge achievement.
There is a way to win and a way to lose in F1 and Norris needs to be careful to make sure that soundbites do not take away from his success. Stating “It’s not talent, it’s just luck” was regrettable and his later remarks seemed to be more balanced.
In comments transmitted through McLaren’s social media channels, Norris spoke alongside team principal Andrea Stella and his teammate Oscar Piastri. On this occasion, the British driver’s remarks seemed to highlight how his team had also benefited from good fortune at times this season.
“What do I say, a very difficult day for us.” Norris said when sharing his post-race thoughts with the online Papaya faithful. “Clearly not the result we were hoping for at all. So, some little things that just didn’t go our way. The red flag was just an unlucky moment for us not even a hindsight thing this is just life stuff sometimes and we’ve had some bits of luck in this season we’ve also had a lot of bits that are unlucky. Today was just very unlucky for us, this is not something you can plan for this is just something you get lucky with or you get unlucky with and today we’re on the unlucky side so a shame.”
Norris went on to admit the task ahead of him is considerably larger now but he is up for the battle.
“Either way, we’ll keep our heads up we’ll keep fighting I’ll keep fighting too. I know there’s a lot of points I’ve gotta magically come up with but more importantly at the minute as a team we’re in the fight. We’re still leading the way and I’m confident we can continue to do so right to the end so heads down big push – nice little break – but a big push and we’ll end the season strongly. So, thank you very much everyone thanks for your support as always.”
Norris has shown that he has the skill and talent to be an F1 Drivers’ World Champion in future. He is racing against the benchmark of the sport – a current 3-time F1 Drivers’ Champion – but irrespective of red flags and Safety Cars what happened in Brazil should not be simply labelled as lucky. It was something far more impressive than that thanks to the supreme skill of Verstappen and Red Bull Racing as a whole. After all, seven-time F1 Drivers’ World Champion Lewis Hamilton posted to Verstappen online ‘Amazing drive, congrats.’ – so you can’t say fairer than that.
