Lando Norris says he respects Max Verstappen but reckons the four-time world champion was following Red Bull’s “aggressive nature” in claiming he would have won the title long ago in a McLaren.
Verstappen gave an interview to F1TV on Thursday at the Qatar Grand Prix in which he cited the unlikely nature of him still being in the title picture, starting the race weekend 24 points adrift of Norris.
“We also have to be realistic, we are in this fight still because other people’s failures, not because – if you look at the whole of the season – what we did,” Verstappen said. “Yes, we did really well, we have really maximized pretty much all races … but if we would have been in the position of how dominant a car they had, let’s say it like that, the championship would have been over a long time ago.”
After the Sprint in Qatar – where Norris was third and Verstappen fourth to extend the lead to 25 points – Norris stated he never saw the Dutchman behind him despite Verstappen’s close attentions in the early laps, but then responded to his earlier comments.
“Of course I saw him, but he was never too much of a threat at all,” Norris said. “My focus was more on George [Russell] and seeing how I could keep the tires in a good place for later.
“Max is very welcome to say everything he wants, to be honest. He kind of earned the right. He’s won four world championships. I have a lot of respect, and I think that gives anyone a lot of credit in general. He’s achieved an incredible amount, more than anyone generally dreams of achieving.
“Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things, but there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about. But it’s also Red Bull’s way of going about things. It’s this kind of aggressive nature and just talking nonsense a lot of the time.
“It depends if you want to listen to it and talk about it like you [the media] love to, or you do what we do as a team, which is just kind of keep our heads down, keep focused. Maybe he would have done [won the title], but he hasn’t so far. He keeps trying.”
A year ago, Verstappen also claimed he would have won the championship earlier than he did if he had been in a McLaren in 2024, leading Norris to reply on that occasion: “He should start doing comedy or something. He can say whatever he wants. Of course, I’m afraid I have to disagree, as I would. He’s good, but, yeah, it’s not true.”
