Karun Chandhok admits 24-year-old F1 star produced ‘drive of the season’ in 2023

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Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok has admitted that McLaren driver Lando Norris produced the best drive of the season in Mexico City this year.

Lando Norris was fantastic in 2023 and it speaks volumes that he was fighting for a top-four finish in the Drivers’ Championship in Abu Dhabi despite his car being one of the worst on the grid in Bahrain.

Karun Chandhok was discussing the top ten drivers of 2023 and it’s no surprise that Norris features near the top of that list.

Only Max Verstappen recorded more podiums than the 24-year-old in the second half of the season.

Norris was far from perfect, with his performances on a Saturday forcing him to work even harder on a Sunday to make sure he delivered a finish that the car deserved.

He also had the added challenge of competing against impressive rookie Oscar Piastri this year and while the Australian earned a Sprint Race win in Qatar, Norris more than doubled his points tally.

Chandhok admitted that Norris’s drive in Mexico – where he easily passed Piastri and many of his other rivals – was the best performance of the season from any driver.

He was recovering from a particularly poor qualifying and had a setback in the race as well.

However, he drove like a man possessed that day and deservedly delivered a fifth-place finish.

Chandhok hails Norris drive in Mexico

Speaking about the young Brit and his failure to have recorded a Grand Prix win so far, Chandhok said: “I think that’s been the case for a few years, he’s been the best driver without a win, there’s no doubt about that particular stat.

“He had a few qualifying errors, we saw in Mexico and Qatar, Abu Dhabi, but what was really impressive was he recovered from them.

“If you look at the race in Mexico I personally think was the drive of the season what he did on Sunday.

“Started at the back of the grid, coming through the pack, there was no real luck involved it was just absolute pace and overtaking and a really well-managed race and he came through to get a solid haul of points from a pretty annoying qualifying error by his own admission.

“I thought the same in Abu Dhabi, he made that qualifying mistake at turn 14 but on the opening lap he sort of made up a place and got ahead of Oscar [Piastri] pretty quickly after that and it didn’t really affect him.

“On the whole, a fantastic season, kept his head down when the car was difficult early in the year and then Austria when he got the update early absolutely maximised what he had and I thought it was a super season.”

As Chandhok says, Norris has to be proud of his drive in Mexico but needs to start cutting out the errors in qualifying.

If he can do that, then there’s no reason why he can’t challenge Verstappen for race wins as long as McLaren deliver another strong car.

That’s going to be easier said than done, especially as Red Bull have had so much time to work on their car for 2024.

All eyes will be on testing in Bahrain to see how much Christian Horner’s team can progress over the winter.