Lando Norris told where McLaren driver must improve or risk giving Max Verstappen key advantage

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Lando Norris looks set to miss out on the drivers’ championship to Max Verstappen in 2024. But if the McLaren pilot is to lift the title next term, he must improve one thing.

The 25-year-old will head to Sin City next time out knowing that Verstappen can win a fourth title at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. All the Red Bull racer needs to clinch another championship is to finish the round with a 60-point advantage over Norris, and the gap currently sits at 62.

It was always unlikely that Norris would dethrone three-time reigning champion Verstappen this season. Despite Red Bull falling behind McLaren and Ferrari in the teams’ standings, the start to the year the 27-year-old enjoyed with seven wins in 10 Grand Prix gave him an edge.

Lando Norris risks giving Max Verstappen a huge mental advantage in wet races

Norris also failed to take full advantage of McLaren’s strong pace after Red Bull’s dip in form. In the 10 rounds between Verstappen winning the Spanish Grand Prix and the Sao Paulo GP, the Briton outscored the Dutchman by just 22 points. Norris scored 165 to Verstappen’s 143.

Verstappen winning the Sao Paulo GP from 17th on the grid after Norris scored pole position only to finish the race in Brazil in sixth place also highlighted a concern that Martin Donnelly holds about the latter. The ex-Lotus F1 driver now urges Norris to spend the winter learning.

READ MORE: The best moments of Lando Norris’ career in Formula 1

Donnelly is convinced that Norris must improve his ability in wet conditions, otherwise he is handing Verstappen a huge mental advantage as the Red Bull ace will know he can beat the McLaren pilot. It would even help to set Norris aside from the ‘good’ and the ‘great’ drivers.

“There are great drivers and there are brilliant drivers,” Donnelly has told RacingNews365. “Brilliant drivers in my book were [Ayrton] Senna [and Michael] Schumacher. [Fernando] Alonso is still there, he proved with the right car, he can put it towards the front.

“Good drivers, they can win on the odd occasion. Your [David] Coulthards, [Mark] Webbers [and Eddie] Irvines. They’re good drivers but they’re not great drivers. They can’t produce that last half a second or cope with a car that’s not on the nose and still get a lap time.

“That’s what Lando needs to look at over the course of the winter months because if he doesn’t catch it soon and cop on to it, Max – in the wet conditions – will just turn around [and say], ‘Put me at the back of the grid. Don’t worry. I’ll bide my time and work my way towards the front because I know behind the wheel I’m the best out there’.”

Lando Norris has seldom shone in heavy rain as a Formula 1 driver

Verstappen has long been praised for his performances in wet races, especially in Sao Paulo after also excelling for Red Bull in the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix. A late pit stop for new tyres dropped the Dutchman down to 14th place with 16 laps left, yet he charged through for P3.

Meanwhile, the best that Norris has performed in wet conditions came in qualifying for the F1 Sprint at the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix when he secured pole position by a massive 1.261 seconds to Lewis Hamilton. He also needed drying conditions to impress in Canada this year.

When the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix was at its wettest and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen used the full wet tyres to climb into fourth place, Norris fell to over 10 seconds behind George Russell in the lead. But as the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve dried, Norris joined Verstappen in the battle.