LAS VEGAS – McLaren’s Lando Norris is set to join an exclusive club in Formula 1 history with his 150th start at Saturday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Norris, once deemed a prospective phenom, can live up to all the hype he received in his youth and move even closer to his maiden World Drivers’ Championship with a positive result in Sin City this weekend.
Norris has been locked in a heated championship duel with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri throughout the season. Piastri started the season with four wins in the first six Grand Prixs and spent most of the season atop the WDC standings, leading Norris by as many as 34 points after Norris retired toward the end of August’s Dutch Grand Prix due to a mechanical failure.
Since that fateful day at Zandvoort, Norris has five podiums in six races and enters Las Vegas coming off consecutive victories at Mexico City and Brazil. On the other hand, Piastri has only landed on the podium once and was forced to retire in Azerbaijan. As a result, Norris has opened up a reasonably comfortable 24-point lead over Piastri with three races left.
While a 24-point cushion with three races left isn’t exactly a small margin, the fact that Norris was able to turn his fortunes around so suddenly after Zandvoort means that he knows as well as anyone just how quickly the championship picture can change with just one bad weekend.
“I feel like I’ve very much been on top of a lot of things the last few weekends, but it’s a very difficult level to perform at all of the time,” Norris said. “I have incredible drivers that I’m up against. My expectation for myself is to try and perform at the same level. But that’s not always a guarantee. I know that it can change very quickly.”
Given the gap between Norris and Piastri ahead of Las Vegas, Norris could finish behind Piastri in every remaining race and still leave the final round in Abu Dhabi as world champion. That technically means that Norris could be better served by driving a cautious, trouble-free race as opposed to pushing flat out, but the 26-year-old doesn’t seem to be entering the final stretch with this approach.
“What’s done me so well the last few weekends (has been) going flat (out), staying out of trouble and staying out of the chaos behind,” Norris said. “It’s almost a safer bet in terms of pushing. So I think (taking fewer risks is) not the right mindset to have. I’ll come here this weekend to try and win. I’ll go to Qatar to try and win.”
The battle between Norris and Piastri has at times boiled over into the press, but Norris made it abundantly clear during Wednesday’s press conference that there’s no bad blood between the two championship-contending teammates.
In fact, their relationship is as good as ever, according to Norris.
“I think we have a lot of respect for one another,” Norris said. “We both understand the position that we’re in and we both treat the world of driving versus just personally what we like away from the track quite differently. … We’re still different people, but in terms of our relationship, we get along well. We still work together well, and I think it’s still better than it’s ever been.”
–Will Despart, Field Level Media
