A brilliant performance around the floodlit Marina Bay Street Circuit earned McLaren Racing’s Lando Norris his third career win as well as his team’s first since the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix. The 24-year-old dominated the race from beginning to end, leading every single lap after a strong start off the line to hold his position ahead of Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. The Briton will be pleased with his dominant performance, having earned 25 points, further cutting Verstappen’s lead in the 2024 World Drivers’ Championship.
During the post-race press conference, Norris was asked if he found the win more satisfying after having dominated the Grand Prix, but while he admitted a race such as the one that he had typically “puts a slightly bigger smile on [a driver’s] face, maximizing the points scored was the priority as “a win is a win.”
“Just a win is a win.
“So yeah, maybe it puts a slightly bigger smile on your face but the main job is just getting the win.
“So, it’s satisfying no matter what. Of course, the bigger the gap you can have the happier you’re going to be but I’m just happy we finished on top and we got maximum points and got another win.”
He added that he was especially happy to have achieved the win as he had “felt good” throughout the weekend and had known that he was capable of an excellent performance despite the tough racing conditions.
“It’s always going to be a tough race here, but I felt good all weekend, so all I had to do was go out there and perform like I’ve been performing, and all things were going to go well.
The race winner, who finished over 20.9 seconds ahead of second-place Verstappen, and over 41.8 seconds ahead of his third-place teammate Oscar Piastri, was asked how much he had had to push his car to achieve the gaps that he had.
Despite his comfort in the car and the trend of dominant performances by the MCL38, Norris admitted that he had been “flat out” and acknowledged that he had, at times, potentially been pushing too hard.
“I mean, very, I was flat out. I was probably pushing a bit too hard. Yeah, it was definitely not like I was cruising.”
He stated that he had wanted to create a significant enough gap between himself and his rivals to give himself a sufficiently large pit window at the end of the race so that he could change his tyres for an attempt at the fastest lap if the situation allowed it.
“I was pushing to open up a gap, and at one point I wanted to try and open up a pit window to give myself an opportunity to maybe box at the end of the race for quickest lap if I needed to try and achieve that.”
Ultimately, Norris was unable to attempt this strategy as he could not build up a gap sufficiently large enough to allow for a late pitstop without significantly risking his lead. The late pitstop strategy was, however, employed by Visa Cash App RB’s Daniel Ricciardo who changed onto fresh soft compound tyres for the final laps of the race. While Ricciardo finished the race in P18, he was able to set the fastest lap time, denying Norris an extra point.
“Daniel stole that away from me at the end of the race.”
The McLaren driver was asked for a further reaction on Ricciardo’s strategy decision later in the press conference. Despite being reminded of the close relationship between Red Bull and RB, Norris refrained from suggesting that there had been any cooperation between the teams. Instead, he opted to focus on his own performance and stated that while he had tried his best to retain the fastest lap, it had not been possible to outperform a driver on new soft tyres while on used hard tyres. He described this as being “just life” and stated that he could not have the fastest lap in every race.
“Well done, Daniel. I don’t know. Nothing I can do is good on him.
“Yeah, I did my best at trying to get a quicker lap when the tyres were in a good condition in the middle.
“But I can’t have them all, you know. I’ve done my best at trying to get quicker laps over the last few weekends and I’ve been able to get them more often than not.
“But I can’t, on a hard tyre in the middle of a stint, beat a guy on a new soft. So, yeah, that’s just life.”
Norris was pressed further for his opinion on the matter. He was asked whether he believed that Red Bull had gained an unfair advantage due to their ties to RB, as while the decision to have Ricciardo take the fast lap would not have benefited RB itself, it had benefitted Red Bull and would affect the Drivers’ Championship fight.
Norris again refused to comment on the relationship between the Red Bull and RB teams, stating that he did not have anything to complain about as the relationship between the two teams had existed for a long time.
“That’s how it’s been in Formula 1 for, I don’t know, probably since before I was born, so… Nothing to complain about.”
He added that his own team had, on previous occasions, also played a role in disrupting races, sometimes to the detriment of one team while favouring another. He described this as being “the logical thing to do” and stated that the decision by RB had been “smart play.”
“There’s been races in the past when other people have been racing. We try to take it away from others.
“So, yes, the logical thing to do. The smart play by them.”
He added, “Happy for Daniel. That’s all.”
Despite his dominant performance, Norris admitted that the race has been “tough” as he had struggled to maximise manage the car in the second stint of the race, especially as traffic and racing between other drivers had further disrupted his race.
“So, yeah, a tough one, but it wasn’t easy. The car was not easy to drive, especially on the hard tyres. I struggled a lot more than what I did on the medium. And especially just with the traffic and things, it was a bit harder to manage the second half of the stint compared to the first, but I was pushing.”
He suggested that pushing as hard as he had been had potentially contributed to some of the mistakes that he had made during the race, but stated that otherwise, things had gone well.
“Let me tell you, I was definitely pushing. Probably too much, hence the mistakes I was making, or the two mistakes I made with the wall, but otherwise things were going well.”
When asked about the aforementioned mistakes, the McLaren driver stated that he did not think that his performance had been too significantly affected by them. This was especially so with his front wing as while he believed that it had been slightly damaged by contact with the wall, his team had not deemed a change of the front wing necessary and he had not experienced any significant impact on his race performance.
“I don’t think so.
“I mean, the team said that there was something with the front wing, maybe being a little bit off. I hit the front wing against the barrier, so it might have tweaked it a touch, but I don’t think probably much to change it, but hard to know.
“On these cars, as soon as you tweak something a tiny bit, it can have quite a big impact, but nothing that I was probably feeling.”
The Briton stated that the dirty air from slower cars ahead of him had more significantly disrupted his race, and highlighted reduced grip and downforce and tyre wear as other factors which had contributed to his mistakes.
“But yes, as soon as I did that, and I think it was more… I mean, I was pushing, but also it was just as I was catching up to the dirty air from the cars ahead, whether they were three, four seconds ahead, as soon as… It changes from the past, you know, 20 laps that I had.
“You have a little bit less grip, a little bit less downforce. Tyres are going away a little bit. It just caught me out.
“So, it wasn’t like a lack of concentration or anything. It was just a bit of a surprise to me.”
Despite the challenges and the mistakes made, he stated that his MCL38 had been “all good” and thanked the team for their work towards its development and improvement.
“But, yeah, I think the car was all good and the car has been mega weekend. So a big thanks to the team.”
Norris also stated that he did not think that MCL38’s dominance in the Singapore Grand Prix was track-specific as there had been no significant changes to the car after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix which was won by Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri.
“We’ve not changed anything on the car from here to last weekend or the weekend before. We’ve even had to make tweaks to some of our wings and things that people have complained about.”
While he acknowledged that the team had enjoyed one of their “most dominant weekends” around the Marina Bay Circuit, he stated that the car had been “mega” for a long time and that his failure to earn more victories had mostly been as a result of his own mistakes, for which he had “paid the price”.
“But we’ve still had a great weekend and probably one of our most dominant weekends here. I don’t think that’s made the difference, honestly.
“It was just that the car’s been mega for a good amount of time.
“I’ve not been able to come out on top for quite a few of them when I felt like I had the pace, and I had the ability to do. So, some of that is down to being my own fault and not executing things well enough. So, I’ve paid the price for not doing a good enough job at times.
“But when I lead after Turn 1 and things are a bit more straightforward then we can have a day like today.”
After such a dominant performance and the subsequent reduction in the gap between himself and championship leader Verstappen, Norris was asked about his strategy to maximise his chances in the championship fight into the final quarter of the season. The Briton described the question as “silly” stating that he would continue to try to do his best.
However, he acknowledged that Verstappen and Red Bull would also be seeking opportunities to maximise their performance and admitted that there was “nothing more” that he would be able to do if Red Bull were able to improve and maintain their race performance from Austin onward.
He added that, due to this, he would continue focusing on himself and his team.
“Silly question, really, isn’t it?
“Try and do the same again, but Max is pushing hard. I’m sure Red Bull are pushing hard.
“So, I mean, it’s obvious it’s… I’m doing my best every weekend. I’m trying to get the most points I can every weekend. Includes fastest lap and things like that.
“But if Max keeps finishing second and Red Bull keep doing like they did this weekend, then nothing more I can do.
“So just focus on myself and focus on us as a team. That’s it.”
When asked if he expected the title fight to go down to the last race of the season, Norris stated that neither he nor Verstappen had any idea as they could not predict the future.
However, he reiterated that he was working as hard as he could to maximise his potential in races and stated that as he expected the same from Red Bull and Verstappen, he believed that there would be plenty of competition between the teams.
“We have no idea, mate. I don’t know. I can’t tell the future, so… I’m working as hard as I can, like I just said. I’m sure Red Bull, Max as well, so… I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of competition until the end of the year, and as a team, the only thing we can do is try and score the most points possible.
“That includes trying to win.
“Yeah, it’s, again, a silly question. I mean, we’re doing our best, and so are they. I hope so.”
He added that, ultimately, he aimed to score as many points as he could and added that he would continue to work as hard as he could to achieve the best results possible as it would be difficult to catch up to Verstappen in the standings, even with consistent wins.
“I still have a lot of points I’ve got to catch up and it’s not going to be easy to do it. It’s against Red Bull and it’s against Max, the most dominant pairing you’ve ever seen in Formula 1, from last year. And that’s not necessarily changed in terms of… It’s the same team and it’s the same driver.
“So I have some of the toughest competition that Formula 1 has ever seen in the sport.
“We are doing a better job as a team right now because my car and our car is quicker than theirs. But that’s just credit to the team doing an amazing job and being smarter and doing cooler things and creating mini-DRS flaps and stuff, you know.
“So it’s just because that’s the game and that’s the people we’re up against, the people who also do it and people who create these things.
“So I’m working my heart out, I’m working my butt off, to try and make sure that happens. He’s trying to make sure it doesn’t happen.
“So we’ll have to wait and find out.”
