Lando Norris has reignited his Formula 1 championship hopes by winning the final Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, a year after his title ambitions appeared to go up in smoke at the same circuit.
Norris’ victory, following his earlier win in Budapest, was his second consecutive triumph as reigning world champion. More significantly, it gave him valuable momentum after last year’s DNF at Zandvoort.
His result reduced his championship deficit to 83 points. By comparison, Max Verstappen was 104 points behind then-leader Oscar Piastri after last year’s Dutch Grand Prix. Verstappen ultimately missed out on the title by just two points, explaining why Norris immediately told his team over the radio:
“The fight is still on.”
McLaren development delivers major gains
Norris’ recent victories highlight the progress McLaren has made during the season. The Woking-based team has led Formula 1’s development race in recent years, and its performance under the latest regulations suggests that trend is continuing.
“I think we’ve easily done the best job when you look at everything from where we were last year,” Norris said after claiming his 13th F1 victory at Zandvoort.
“We were always going to start behind this season because of how much we focused on last year. It was inevitable that we were not going to start on the pace this season.
“But for us to catch up, you know, we’ve outdeveloped them. You’re saying on a track like this, almost a second of development from us as McLaren versus our competitors. So that’s pretty insane, and I think that’s the reason why we’ve also come on pretty strong.”
Race-pace data calculated by data partner Paceteq supports Norris’ assessment. At the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, McLaren was an average of 1.34 seconds per lap slower than the Mercedes works team.
McLaren’s performance then fluctuated. Neither McLaren driver was able to start in China, while Oscar Piastri was unexpectedly quick in Japan. The team’s first major upgrade package arrived in Miami, after which its deficit exceeded one second per lap only in Canada, at 1.10 seconds, and Monaco, at 1.67 seconds.
Norris attributed those losses to McLaren being:
“shockingly bad”
in slow-speed corners.
Norris credits his own progress for Zandvoort win
After Norris’ victory, Mercedes suggested that McLaren had become Formula 1’s team to beat. Kimi Antonelli said Mercedes no longer had the fastest car, while team principal Toto Wolff indicated that the budget cap left limited scope for further upgrades.
Norris rejected the suggestion that McLaren was now clearly the fastest team:
“Well, they’re not going to say themselves, are they?” the reigning world champion smiled.
“So, yeah, they’re not going to say themselves. They’re [still] the team to beat even if they just got beaten today, so I don’t think it’s true.”
The McLaren driver also said his own performance played an important role in the Zandvoort result, particularly his decisive overtakes on Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton.
“I think if I didn’t get Kimi when I overtook him, I don’t think I would have won the race today. You know, it’s hard to say, but I also know how good of a job I’m doing behind the wheel.
“And of course I’m never one to overtalk about myself, normally always the complete opposite. But for once I would give myself a little bit of credit that I feel like I’m doing a better job than everyone, and I think that can also make a difference.”
The combination of Norris’ current form and McLaren’s development trajectory has kept his hopes of defending the world title alive, although he accepts that a significant gap remains.
“I’m still [more than] 80 points behind, so I wouldn’t say it’s that close. But I do think it’s close,” he insisted.
“It’s relatively close for a new regulation, that’s for sure. It’s definitely closer than what previous years have been with new regulations.”
