Lando Norris has claimed it is “almost impossible” to be as good as Max Verstappen because he is playing catch-up to a driver who was born into Formula 1.
Verstappen’s world championship bid appeared dead and buried, but consecutive victories in Monza and Baku have propelled him back into the title discussion.
Ahead of Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, he trails championship leader Oscar Piastri by 69 points, with 199 remaining across the concluding seven rounds. Norris is 44 points clear of Verstappen.
Verstappen’s father Jos competed in 106 races and was a teammate of Michael Schumacher. His mother, Sophie Kumpen, enjoyed a successful karting career. Verstappen was just 17 when he made his F1 debut in 2015.
Speaking ahead of the 18th round of 24 in Singapore, Norris said: “I don’t want to say or believe that I will ever be as good as Max because I think that is the wrong thing to tell myself.
“He is one of the best drivers ever in Formula 1, so if anyone ever comes up to you and says, ‘Yes [they will be as good as Verstappen]’, just tell them to f— off. Any driver in the world can just be confident in saying that kind of thing, but I think it is almost impossible.
“Do I believe on some days I am better? Yes. Do I believe my teammate on some days is better? Yes. But it is about how good he is at being consistent which is impressive.
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Norris won’t be drawn on F1 title fight questions
Hear from Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.
“He never goes to 101%, but he will always be at 100%, and when he has a bad day he is at 99%.
“And it is hard to beat someone who was born into an F1 seat. If I could go back and choose how to be a better driver, I would also have a mum and dad who were racing drivers, start when you are a baby in the paddock, start karting at whatever age he did and do more testing than everyone else.
“I would be a better driver now if I did all of those things. So people have to catch up because he was made to be in the position he is now, but he is also making the most of that and that is why he has four world championships.”
At the last round in Azerbaijan, Norris surrendered a golden opportunity to reduce McLaren teammate Piastri’s title advantage to single digits following the Australian’s crash in qualifying and then a race-ending collision with the tyre barrier on the first lap.
However, Norris started only seventh, after he bumped the wall with his final attempt in qualifying, and was unable to progress in the race, taking just six points out of Piastri’s championship lead.
But addressing the criticism he courted for a poor weekend in Azerbaijan, the 25-year-old continued: “I don’t read social media. I don’t know if the press has been good about me, bad about me, slating me, loving me, I am really not too bothered.
“I don’t know what people say about Oscar, even less. I don’t know if he got s— for it [crashing out] or if people celebrated it. I have no idea.”
