The biggest talking point from the United States Grand Prix was Lando Norris’ 5-second penalty for going off the circuit to overtake Max Verstappen.
But what the Austin F1 weekend showed us more clearly than anything is that Norris still doesn’t have what it takes to beat Max to become Champion.
Qualifying for the GP
Lando qualified on pole position for the Grand Prix, but was lucky to do so. In their first flying laps during Q3, Norris set a blistering lap time to go faster than Verstappen by 3 hundreds of a second. But Max missed the apex at Turn 19 which cost him dearly.
As the drivers began their second flying lap at the end of the session, Max was almost two-tenths of a second up on Lando in the first sector. But Russell put his car in the gravel, causing the yellow flags to come out and all drivers had to abort their laps.
By his own account, Lando was lucky to get pole position. He said his second flying lap wasn’t going to be any faster than his first, and Max’s early lap pace looked unbeatable.
Turn 1 troubles
Lando will be the first to admit that race starts have been one of his weaknesses this year. At the Austrian, Hungarian and Dutch GPs he started pole but had lost first position by Turn 1.
In more recent races he’s got his act together; at both the Italian and Singapore Grand Prix he qualified pole and led after the first corner.
So after putting it on pole for the US Grand Prix at Austin, it was clear what he had to do, especially with Max starting alongside him. Lando needed a clean getaway and to move across to the left of the track as quickly as possible to defend the inside line from Verstappen.
So when the lights went out, Lando released the clutch and got a great start. His getaway was very even with Max’s, meaning Lando was clearly ahead as he accelerated up through the first couple of gears.
All he had to do then was sweep over to the left as they ran up the hill towards the tight Turn 1 to prevent Max from diving up his inside.
But Lando only did half the job. He moved across, but not enough. He left a couple of car’s widths on his inside. And even though Max was behind Lando, the Dutchman wasn’t going to need a better invite to brake late and stick it up the inside, which is exactly what he did.
Granted, Max braked so late that he ran a little wide on the exit of Turn 1 and forced Lando even further off track. But he wasn’t penalised for it, and Lando exited Turn 1 down in fourth place.
From sharing a grid with the Dutchman over the last 6 seasons, watching him battle with Lewis and then racing him wheel-to-wheel in 2024, Lando must surely know who he’s up against, right?
But watching the first corner unfold, it immediately became clear that Norris still doesn’t have the measure of Max. By leaving a gap on the inside of Turn 1 big enough for the Red Bull, he was asking for trouble.
Had the roles been reversed Max would never have let someone lunge him up the inside in to Turn 1. He’s the most aggressive driver on the grid, both in terms of attack and defence, and Norris’ timid defending was never going to stand up to scrutiny.
Turn 12 controversy
Lando’s lacklustre defence at the start of the race put him on the back foot for the rest of the 56-lap Grand Prix.
One thing this season has shown is that Lando is able to manage his tyres very well in the McLaren, giving him strong late-race pace. In the final stages of the US GP he was closing in on Verstappen in 3rd place by around 1 second per lap.
By lap 50 he was within striking distance, dipping under the 1-second needed to have the benefit of the two COTA DRS zones. Turn 12 at the end of the back straight is one of the best overtaking opportunities at the track, and on lap 51 Max showed his colours by strongly defending the inside line, giving Lando nowhere to go.
For a couple of laps, Lando weaved around behind Max but never made any decisive moves. It seemed clear that Lando was wary of Max – and who wouldn’t be – to the extent where he seemed relunctant to try and make a move.
On lap 52 he had a better run down the back straight, but Verstappen’s defence of the inside in to Turn 12 forced Lando to try it around the outside.
As Benjamin Franklin said, in this world nothing is certain except death, taxes and not being able to go around the outside of Max Verstappen.
Max’s aggressive defending can only be countered if someone is willing to attack with equal aggressiveness, as his battles with Charles Leclerc in 2022 have shown us. But Lando hasn’t attacked Max with the same vigor, so at Austin he was left with no other option than to try it around the outside.
Of course, Max wasn’t going to let him have that. Verstappen braked late, made it to the apex first, forced Lando off the track and ran himself a little wide on the exit. Lando kept his foot in it and passed him outside of the circuit boundaries, getting himself a 5-second penalty which would eventually drop him back behind Max.
FIA's Driving Standards Guidelines
In the aftermath of Lando’s attempted overtake and subsequent 5-second time penalty there has been a huge amount of debate about whether the penalty was right or not. I can’t really add any more value to that debate. You can make your own mind up about it.
But one thing I will say is this; Max knows what he’s doing. The FIA’s Driving Standards Guidelines which try to outline some ‘rules of engagement’ for F1 drivers during close-quarter racing focus largely on which driver is ahead at the apex of a corner when apportioning blame during an incident.
Max knows this. That’s why he does whatever he can to be ahead at the apex, even if it means outbraking himself and running wide on the exit. We’ve seen it at Brazil 2021, Jeddah 2021, Vegas 2023, Hungary 2024 and now twice at this year’s US GP.
Until something in the FIA’s guidelines changes to punish him for it, he’ll keep doing it. And until that point, the only way Lando is going to get the better of him is if he gets his elbows out.
Lando's mindset
If Lando wants to become a world champion he needs to act like one, and that starts with his mindset. The 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix was perhaps the most telling about whether or not Norris has what it takes to be the best.
Lando lead the race despite a botched start and losing out to teammate Piastri at the first corner. He undercut Oscar at the first round of pitstops as McLaren decided to pit their two drivers in reverse order, and inherited the lead thanks to the team’s strange strategy call.
As the race progressed, McLaren asked Lando to let Oscar by as it was the fairest thing to do given their unusual strategy. Lando didn’t respond, and his engineer was repeatedly heard pleading with Lando on the radio to give the position up.
Eventually, despite being way ahead in the championship, Lando let Oscar back in to the lead to take his first anticlimactic win.
To become a Formula 1 world champion you need to be racing entirely for yourself. You need to be bloody-minded. You need to do whatever it takes to win.
Can you imagine the greats – Verstappen, Schumacher, Senna, or Prost – giving the lead of the race up to their teammate when they’re in with a chance of winning the title? Absolutely not.
If Lando wants to become world champion he needs to put himself first. He needs to attack Max as hard as Max would attack him. He needs to forget about helping his team or his teammate.
The US Grand Prix at Austin showed that Lando isn’t there yet. He’s still too timid around Verstappen. As much as I’d love him to, he won’t win the world championship this year.
Interesting
By the way Verstappen deserved to be penalized for going out of track as well. Why FIA didn’t give him penalty for that ? He could have stayed within track limits.