Lando Norris plays down his losing battle with the Red Bull driver: “Nobody in F1 could have recovered from a deficit like the one I had.”

Lando Norris has refuted Max Verstappen’s claim he would’ve won the title “even earlier” in the McLaren, the Briton adamant Red Bull’s early-season advantage could not be overcome. Verstappen and Red Bull picked up where they left off last year with an emphatic 22-second victory at this year’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix where he led home a Red Bull 1-2.

Lando Norris believes his McLaren team were simply “not ready” to win an F1 drivers’ championship this year after Max Verstappen sealed the title in Las Vegas. Verstappen finished fifth, a spot above Norris, in Sin City and now has an unassailable lead in the drivers’ championship with two races left.