Rubens Barrichello shares Max Verstappen’s key ‘advantage’ over Lando Norris in F1 title battle

Follow us on Google Discover

The title battle between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen is entering its final stages, with just three races left on the 2024 season calendar.

Norris will face a lot of pressure at the next race in Las Vegas as he attempts to overcome a deficit of 62 points to Verstappen in the run of races between the US race, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Verstappen’s eighth win in Sao Paulo means he can become World Champion for a fourth time if he simply outscores Norris in Las Vegas, or hopes that Norris finishes lower than ninth without the fastest lap.

Rubens Barrichello, who has been in a few title battles in his F1 career having raced for Ferrari and latterly at Brawn when they won the championship in 2009, believes there is one key advantage that Verstappen has over Norris when discussing it on the Beyond the Grid podcast.

Rubens Barrichello thinks Max Verstappen has ‘experience’ on his side over Lando Norris

Norris has shown his inexperience at points during the season, notably with his mistakes on strategy and his starts after losing out from pole.

Surprisingly, Norris has a better initial reaction than Verstappen at the start but suffers badly when they enter the second phase of the getaway.

Discussing whether Verstappen has an advantage because he is going for his fourth title with Tom Clarkson, the Brazilian believes there is one thing the Dutchman has that he can rely on to get him over the line.

Barrichello: “It’s a much more exciting year than obviously last year. I think that the fact that you turn on the TV and you don’t know who’s going to win makes up for it.”

“Obviously, McLaren is robbing points from Ferrari, who’s robbing some points from McLaren. And that’s good for Verstappen. It’s good for Red Bull.”

Clarkson: “Looking at the battle between Max and Lando, Max is gunning for world title number four, Lando is going for world title number one, how much of an advantage is the previous experience for Max?

Barrichello: “That depends on how is your mind’s status now. Because experience is everything, if you are in a good moment for yourself. How is this supposed to happen? Are you in peace with yourself? Are you under pressure somehow? Have you got problems to solve apart from F1?

“Life goes on. It’s not just an hour and a half that we are inside of the car. So there are so many things that we don’t know and we won’t know.”

Should Lando Norris try to learn from Max Verstappen?

Norris likely did not expect to be battling with Verstappen at the start of the 2024 campaign, given how far ahead of the competition Red Bull was last year.

Upgrades to the RB20 that failed to add performance and significant steps made in the development of the MCL38 over the winter meant Norris could start to pounce on Verstappen midway through the season.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

David Coulthard believes Norris would do well to learn from Verstappen to cut out some of his mistakes this season, having most recently committed one in Brazil that pressured his team into pitting at the wrong time in the wet conditions.

By contrast, Verstappen stayed out and braved the conditions until there was a red flag, which effectively sealed his rise from P17 on the grid to victory and put one hand on the title heading into Las Vegas.