Title hopes were ‘a little far-fetched,’ Norris concedes

Lando Norris mentioned any hopes for him to chase down Max Verstappen and win this yr’s Method 1 drivers’ championship have been “somewhat far-fetched” as he accepted official honors for ending as runner-up.

Verstappen had a cushty lead after successful seven of the primary 10 races this season, earlier than Norris threatened a problem because the Crimson Bull driver went 10 races and not using a victory. Norris had minimize the deficit to 47 factors — nonetheless practically two race victories — heading into the race weekend at Interlagos, however a Verstappen win within the moist all however ended the battle and Norris believes it wasn’t sensible to anticipate him to overturn such a giant margin.

“I used to be by no means shut sufficient to Max,” Norris mentioned on the FIA Prize Giving in Rwanda. “I believe if anybody thought I used to be going to get it, that was most likely somewhat far-fetched. However on the identical time, we tried for so long as potential — I attempted.”

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Norris received the ultimate spherical in Abu Dhabi to safe the constructors’ championship for McLaren, and CEO Zak Brown says each he and teammate Oscar Piastri have been central to that achievement.

“Andrea [Stella, team principal] has accomplished an unbelievable job main this racing group, we’ve got two superior racing drivers, as we’ve mentioned from the phrase go, and all of the women and men at McLaren have accomplished an exquisite job,” Brown mentioned.

“I believe to go all the way down to the wire, towards Ferrari — in the event you had one group to choose to go all the way down to the final lap with, Ferrari can be it — and so they did an unbelievable job. They stored us trustworthy the entire means via.”

From Stella’s perspective, a primary constructors’ championship success as a group principal is a brand new expertise after being a part of the Ferrari dominance of the mid-2000s.

“It’s totally different from many factors of view,” Stella mentioned. “It’s totally different as a result of this championship means taking McLaren to success after 26 years. So, a very long time with out celebrations.

“It’s totally different for me personally — a totally totally different function — and it’s totally different as a result of it’s unprecedented how quickly we developed from being final final yr after the primary couple of races. We had zero factors, final within the classification, and now 666 and world champions.”