Norris: Talk of an F1 title challenge is “stupid”

Lando Norris is not looking ahead to potentially winning the Formula 1 title this season and labelled it “stupid” to increase the focus despite a dominant display at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver once again struggled off the line from pole position and fell behind reigning champion and local favourite Max Verstappen into the first corner.

However, Norris recovered in style, keeping tabs on Verstappen before passing the Red Bull with ease on lap 18 – never looking back as he stormed to a comfortable win.

He still had enough in his used hard tyres to set the fastest lap on his final tour and the winning margin of 22.896 seconds was the biggest in a race not won by Verstappen since Lewis Hamilton’s impressive victory at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

But despite coming back from the summer break in scintillating form, as another upgrade proved to bring instant improvement, Norris offered a bullish response when asked by Autosport if he was confident he has a shot at the title.

“I've been fighting for the championship since the first race of the year. There's no sudden decision now,” he said.

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

“I need to do better. I've been working hard the whole year and I'm still 70 points behind Max. So it's pretty stupid to think of anything at the minute. I just take one race at a time and just keep doing what I'm doing now because there's no point in thinking ahead and thinking of the rest.

“I don't care about it at the minute. I'm just focused on one race at a time, so it's not a question that I need to get asked every single weekend.”

Whether Norris will be good enough over the course of the season to close the 70-point gap to Verstappen remains to be seen.

McLaren, though, was a class ahead of the rest in Zandvoort as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff conceded the Woking-based squad “annihilated” the pack.

With the Italian GP a week away, Norris refused to offer a positive take on whether he could make it back-to-back victories.

"Anyone could be on top," he insisted. "Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, us. Ferrari was quite quick. We probably didn't expect them to be as good as they were. Maybe Red Bull struggled a bit more.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, 1st position, takes the chequered flag

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

"I think that was probably more the factor that the Red Bull struggled a bit more than we were expecting. We just keep our heads down.

"There's no point thinking how we're going to do next weekend. We'll just get there and work hard and wait till we get there. There's no point thinking ahead."