Lando Norris must start converting potential into race wins – but one problem lingers

Ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at the prestigious Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Lando Norris trails Max Verstappen by 76 points in the F1 drivers’ championship. After the Dutchman won four of the first five races, it is to McLaren’s credit that they have caught Red Bull in the development race and, on the evidence of the last month, have overtaken Adrian Newey’s ground-effects juggernaut, most effectively in the second half of the grand prix on Sunday.

But what will be to Norris’s immense frustration is this: the deficit should be narrower.

Points have been left on the table. To be specific, 48. In the last four races in Spain, Austria, Silverstone and Hungary, Norris had openings that he failed to grasp. He started on pole in Barcelona; he crashed with Verstappen in Spielberg; he picked the wrong tyre at his home race; and he led last week from his teammate. And yet he won none of them.

That 48-point bonus, obviously, would not have just taken him 28 points away from Verstappen. The swing of points would be such that, arguably, Norris could be within touching distance of the three-time F1 world champion heading into the summer break. The opportunities squandered are, to an extent, an indication of a team in unfamiliar territory in the modern iteration.

Some factors have been outside of Norris’s control. The team’s tyre choice towards the finale of the British Grand Prix was costly. Team orders last week saw a reluctant Norris eventually relinquish the lead to Oscar Piastri. But what is fully within his control is his foot on the throttle at lights out and, right now, it is his clear weak spot.

We saw the first glimpses of Norris’s troubles from the front at the start in the China sprint race in April, when he lost out to Lewis Hamilton at turn one, dropping a further five places as he slipped off track. In Barcelona, Norris slipped from first to third after being sandwiched by Verstappen down the inside and George Russell on the outside, swooping through. After the race, he admitted that moment cost him victory.

And last week in Budapest, Norris was unable to defend from Piastri, who got a super launch off the line. Regardless of the fiasco that later followed, the reason McLaren backed the Australian to take the chequered flag was because of that start. The team later explained that Norris experienced a “small glitch” finding second gear as he accelerated from pole position.

open image in gallery

open image in gallery

“I just had a bad start,” he said afterwards. “Something happened on my second shift and I lost all my momentum and Oscar got to the inside. I didn’t deserve to win, because of my start and Oscar’s good start, and that’s that.”

It means that. for all of Norris’s near-misses, he still has just one grand prix win to his name – Miami in May – and is on the same number of victories as his teammate.

With 11 races to go, there can be no more room for error. If Norris genuinely and ambitiously wants to chase down Verstappen and challenge for the championship, he must start reeling off race wins. Even then, he may well need some DNFs from Verstappen to even stand a chance of catching his rival by the season finale in Abu Dhabi in December.

This weekend in Spa, a chance arises straight away. Verstappen will take 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race for exceeding his engine allocation for the season, yet will be eyeing a repeat of the last two years when he stormed through the order after a similar penalty to cruise to victory.

And in practice on Friday, Norris and Verstappen – who are both half-Belgian – were the leading duo once again: the Dutchman quickest in the first session, with Norris leading a McLaren one-two in the second session. Given Verstappen’s penalty, the initiative is very much with Norris this weekend, at the longest circuit on the calendar. A much-needed victory would be the perfect way to enter the summer shutdown period.