The surprising advantage Lando Norris has over Max Verstappen during F1 race starts

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It’s fair to say that Lando Norris main weakness has been during the starts having failed to convert seven out of his eight poles into leads on the opening lap.

The Briton is fighting against Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship this season having taken advantage of McLaren’s newfound form.

Starts have been the main problem for Norris as evidenced by the recent race in Sao Paulo whereby he lost out to George Russell into the first corner.

This effectively set him on course for the loss as he conceded track position in the wet conditions and pressured his McLaren team into making an unnecessary pit stop to get the undercut.

Norris has been open about admitting that he needs to improve his starts, after also losing out to his teammate Oscar Piastri at both the Hungary and Monza races which ultimately cost him victory.

However, journalist Mark Hughes believes there is one stat that shows Norris is surprisingly better than Verstappen when it comes to their starts off the line when speaking on The Race podcast.

Lando Norris reaction time better than Max Verstappen

According to Hughes, the reaction time for Norris off the line is better than Verstappen: “When you look at the reaction times, Max’s reaction times are usually slower than Lando’s. I think Sainz made the point that on low-grip surfaces, the Red Bull is just dynamite off the grid.”

A look at their start times at the Dutch Grand Prix from official FOM data shows Norris and Verstappen had identical reaction times of 0.28 seconds off the line, however, Norris lost 0.41 seconds to Verstappen going from 0-125mph.

During the Chinese GP Sprint this was a slightly different outcome, with Norris slower than Hamilton during the initial 0-125mph phase. It only took Hamilton 5.06 seconds versus 5.22 seconds for Norris.

Norris’ getaway in Hungary was hampered by a small technical glitch, which is what ultimately enabled Piastri to pass him and effectively lead the race to victory.

Lando Norris poor start record in F1

Starts in F1 are one of the most critical parts of a race because it is where critical time can be lost spent behind another car in ‘dirty air’ before there is a pit stop.

The McLaren excels when it is in clean air at the front of the pack, which is why Norris’ time loss at the starts has become a critical factor in him dropping points to Verstappen.

On seven occasions out of eight, Norris has failed to keep the lead. This stretches all the way back to the 2021 Russian Grand Prix and continues through to this year’s Spanish GP.

Norris blamed his poor start for losing out to Verstappen in Spain, while he had only held pole at the start of this year’s Singapore GP, which he went on to win by over 20 seconds.