🔗 Share this article

Despite all excitement surrounding the Las Vegas Grand Prix, McLaren's lead driver is keeping a level head about his prospects of securing his first drivers' championship.

Norris presently has a 24-point advantage over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with just a maximum of 83 points available across the remaining trio of events. But, after staging a extraordinary recovery from 34 points behind his teammate after the Zandvoort race in August, Norris is concentrating on executing with the clinical precision that propelled him to the top of the standings.

"It can easily turn in the other direction again even though I hope it doesn't," he stated. "That's racing, you know. Sometimes you get lucky. Other times you also be unlucky. No matter what happens. It's not worth getting excited or dwelling on it. I still do see it as a goal that's quite distant."

Norris has found his peak performance at a crucial juncture—after difficulties with the car in the opening half of the campaign—at the same time that his teammate has shed the disciplined, nearly flawless composure that previously made him seem to be a future title winner. Importantly, Norris maintained a impressive level of composure throughout, asserting even in the face of setbacks—such as his withdrawal from the Zandvoort race—that he would stick to his gameplan and work every outing with the identical unwavering focus on specifics. This approach has paid off.

Meanwhile, the team have gone to no little effort to attempt to preserve a fair competition for their two drivers, and it has on occasion been a rather difficult process, most notably at the Italian Grand Prix when the team instructed Piastri to surrender second place to Norris after he had fallen behind due to a slow pit stop. Certain spectators were unhappy with what was considered the team needlessly interfering with their drivers.

The championship leader has won the previous pair of grands prix, in Mexico City and São Paulo, and was jeered on the winner's rostrum at both, leaving him unmoved. "When you're on top, many individuals want to bring you down. They don't want to see you succeeding. I consider it a good thing," he said.

"It just amuses me. While standing on the podium in Brazil, I truly loved it. The experience was quite satisfying. You finally sense that you are achieving success.

"It doesn't bother me, as long as I win. If I feel like I am competing the correct manner, which I feel like I am, so long as I feel like I am dedicating effort into remaining true to myself and similar principles, then I am not concerned with the rest of it."

Vegas, on the other hand, must be conquered, and it is a circuit ideal for the McLaren. It shares similarities with Montreal and Baku: low downforce, cool temperatures, and slippery surfaces. These are the only two tracks in the current championship where the papaya squad have been unable to claim at least one top-three finish, and the leader was cautious once more about their prospects in Nevada. Yet, his task in the short term is straightforward: end the race in front of Piastri and the points he requires will come.

Practice Sees Varied Results for Title Contenders

The Ferrari driver topped the leaderboard in FP1 on what was still a dusty and extremely low-grip surface. The Williams racer was second, with the Red Bull star fourth, Norris sixth, and Piastri eighth. In the more indicative evening session of FP2, the Briton was fastest from the Silver Arrows of Kimi Antonelli, with Piastri 14th; though, the practice lost nearly the last third of running to check a suspected unsecured drain cover at the penultimate corner.

This problem is treated with caution on a street circuit where, at the first Nevada GP held in 2023, a dislodged drain cover smashed into the Ferrari, severely damaging it and causing the practice to be aborted.

Mercedes Announce Ownership Transaction

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their boss the Austrian executive has sold a 15% stake in his holding company, equating to a 5% share in the team, to US tycoon the cybersecurity magnate. Kurtz is the chief executive and creator of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The team principal will remain as boss and could earn as much as £230m from the sale, with the Brackley-based outfit having been valued at £4.57 billion, a record for an F1 team.