Verstappen Acknowledges Norris With McLaren As Real Threat In Championship Battle

Thursday, 23 May 2024 at 18:00

Speaking to the media ahead of the eighth race of the 2024 season at Circuit de Monaco, Max Verstappen acknowledged Norris with McLaren as a threat in the battle for the Championship title.

Since introducing their new significant upgrade during the 2024 Miami Grand Prix weekend, McLaren has significantly closed the gap to Red Bull and has repeatedly challenged the Austrian team for the race win.

In Miami, Lando Norris actually won the race and was faster than Max Verstappen. In Imola, the race pace of Red Bull and McLaren was similar, and the 24-year-old finished only seven-tenths of a second behind the Dutchman.

The recent two races present a great promise for all F1 fans for the rest of the season as we can look ahead to close and exciting battles for race wins.

On the other hand, it isn't something Red Bull would be looking forward to. Verstappen already said he and his team need to do a better job to avoid stressful situations like they had in Imola.

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Although the triple World Champion remains confident in his and his team's ability, he also acknowledged Norris with McLaren as a new potential threat in the battle for the Championship title.

"He (Norris) is really in the mix. He is quite a few points down but if they suddenly start winning, that can turn around quite quickly. But from our side we just have to focus on ourselves because that is the only thing in our control.

"It has closed up which makes it very important to be at our very best, and 100 per cent. We need to be on it. Imola started off badly and we managed to turn it around but I wouldn't want to have a weekend like that again."

The result of this week's Monaco Grand Prix will most likely come down to the qualifying session on Saturday. Verstappen won last year's qualifying as well as the race. Which team and driver do you expect to win this time around?