Lando Norris: Red Bull’s setup disaster shows it’s “easy to make mistakes” in F1

Lando Norris believes Red Bull’s disastrous start to the weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix shows how easy it is to “make mistakes” in F1.

Norris stormed to his seventh F1 victory of the year to move 24 points ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in the drivers’ championship.

The British driver has peaked at the right time, taking back-to-back victories.

Norris’ form has coincided with a significant dip for Piastri, who has finished fifth in the last three races.

Max Verstappen’s hopes of a fifth F1 world title have taken a major hit, with 49 points to make up on Norris in the remaining three races.

The Dutchman was knocked out in Q1 for the first time since Russia 2021.

Red Bull elected to take Verstappen’s car out of parc fermé conditions to give him a fresh setup, allowing the team to make significant changes to improve his car’s handling.

Those tweaks paid off, as Verstappen recovered to finish on the podium after starting from the pit lane.

Speaking in the post-race FIA press conference, Norris discussed how much of a “threat” Verstappen will be in the remaining rounds.

He believes Verstappen would have won the Sao Paulo GP had he started higher up, highlighting that not every F1 team “puts it together” on a given weekend.

“I mean, I’m sure he’s going to be a threat in terms of races, and you never know with the championship,” Norris explained.

“So it’s pointless trying to guess and come up with these things. But with how quick he was today - yeah, probably would have won if he started higher up. But that’s racing.

“Not everyone puts it together, and it’s easy to make mistakes in the world that we live in. Again, we maximised this weekend for ourselves, and that’s all we have to do.

“He’ll be a threat - he always is. He’s always there, he’s always fighting, and I’m sure he’ll fight to the end. So I look forward to it.”

Verstappen on title chances

Norris can now afford to finish second in all of the remaining races - including the Qatar sprint - to win the title.

Verstappen will have to rely on bad luck for Norris in the final three races to have any chance of taking the championship.

Las Vegas will likely be McLaren’s weakest circuit of the final run of tracks.

They were clearly the fourth-fastest team there last year, with the long straights and cool track temperatures not playing to the car’s strengths - as seen at Monza and Baku.

Verstappen conceded that he lost too many points earlier in the season, prior to the Italian Grand Prix, where Red Bull transformed their car with an upgrade.

“Very different tracks, so it’s difficult to know to be honest,” he explained. “I think we’re still struggling a bit on tyres, so it will depend on track layout, temperatures.

“We can get it into a good window, but not always. That’s what we have to focus on. That’s what we will focus on in the coming races. And yeah, I mean, what are we - 49 points behind now?

“So it’s also… I mean, we didn’t lose the championship here or whatever. We lost the championship from race one ’til Zandvoort. We had a lot of weekends where we simply were not quick enough.

“Then, of course, you have a big gap. Then we had good moments where you get some points back, but not enough. That’s how the season goes.”