F1 | McLaren Dominant: Norris Gets Start Wrong Again but Wins

McLaren blows down Red Bull’s neck. Lando Norris’s second win of the season was Verstappen-style, an all-out display of strength that came after the now-familiar poor start.

Paradoxically, it was the slow start that made Max’s defeat more stinging. After flying into the lead at the first corner, it seemed like everything was ready for yet another repeat of a well-known script, a breakaway until he left the DRS zone and a progressive increase in the gap. It didn’t go that way. Norris waited ten laps (the first pass with Lando in the DRS zone was the twelfth) then came a sprint with an overtaking move (on the eighteenth lap) that almost seemed like a lapping.
“We made the wrong choice of aerodynamic load on Max’s car,” Christian Horner later admitted, “and we found ourselves slow on the straight.”

Norris’s boast (always Verstappen-style) came with the fastest lap in the last lap of the race, prepared with the maximum charge of the hybrid, which brought Lando to the maximum loot of the day. The points distance from Max dropped to 70, a number that clashes a bit with the enthusiasm of those who dream of seeing a world championship open again.

On one hand there is a single-seater, the McLaren, that seems to be a deadly weapon for Norris, on the other the arithmetic logic that struggles to take away Verstappen’s fourth world title. The question is there, however, even if Norris seems to be really annoyed by being asked if he believes in the world championship goal.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

“I have to do better. I’ve worked hard all year and I’m still 70 points behind Max, so it’s quite stupid to think about the title. I just take it one race at a time and continue to do what I’ve done so far, there’s no point in thinking about the future, I don’t care. I’m just… yeah, focused on one race at a time. So it’s not a question I need to be asked every single weekend.”

The formerly friendly Norris is experiencing first-hand the tension of those who find themselves racing for the highest goals, an area where you experience a very different Formula 1 than those who race for other goals. But this too is part of the growth process.

What is certain is that Lando will have a good single-seater at his disposal for the remaining nine rounds of the world championship, the superiority seen in Zandvoort is unlikely to be confirmed in all layouts, but this McLaren will be in the game everywhere.
“If what we saw this weekend were to be repeated in all the next races, well, I would be very, very worried,” Horner admitted, “but at the moment it’s only the fourth time this year that Max’s lead has been reduced to this extent. Today is also Lando’s second win, so that’s worth remembering, but at the same time we know we need to find more performance. We were +78 points before this weekend (Horner is referring to the gap between Verstappen and Norris) and now we’re +70. Obviously our aim is to make sure we extend the lead, not to see it continue to decrease.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, battling with Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

The situation in the Constructors’ Championship is another matter, where McLaren’s race now seems unstoppable. After Zandvoort the gap from Red Bull has dropped to thirty points, despite Piastri not having contributed to the cause as he could have.
“I think that without the position he lost at the start Oscar could have finished the race ahead of Max – admitted Andrea Stella – his pace was excellent but he paid for the start”. The bare minimum Piastri took home ahead of Perez, and speaking of the Mexican, Horner revealed a behind-the-scenes story after the race.

“We ran the two cars with different specifications, the positive side is that we now have much more information. I would say that Checo’s package was undoubtedly the best, but we had to try”. A two-faced evaluation, on the one hand the gap suffered by Verstappen under the checkered flag does not faithfully reflect the technical values, on the other Perez, even with the specification considered to be performing, did not go beyond sixth position. His future continues to be at risk.