Ex-F1 Pilots Doubt Norris is Ready to Win F1 Title Yet
Jul.9 - Despite now having arguably the best car in Formula 1, Lando Norris has some way to go before he is ready to fight for a world championship.
That's the view of two former F1 drivers, following Norris' extreme disappointment about finishing just third between multiple world champions Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at his home British GP on Sunday.
Even Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko had to admit after the chequered flag that Hamilton fully deserved to win after a three-year drought, explaining: "You could see his strength in terms of tyre management that shows how much experience and speed he still has."
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff appreciated the compliment.
"It's always nice when you get feedback from someone who knows what they're doing," he told Kronen Zeitung newspaper when told about Marko's praise. "And Helmut knows what he's doing.
"The great rivalry fades into the background when we are two Austrians who stick together when the going gets tough."
As for Norris, 24, he could not hide his disgust immediately after the Silverstone race, as he pointed his finger at McLaren for "not doing quite the job we should have" with key strategic choices.
But when asked if he is personally "ready" to consistently beat the likes of Hamilton and Verstappen, Norris also admitted: "I don't know. I mean, I'm not making the right decisions, you know.
"I blame myself for not making some of the right decisions. I hate it," he added. "I hate ending in this position and forever having excuses for not doing a good enough job."
Former F1 driver Christijan Albers said the decisive involvement in key strategic choices demonstrated by Verstappen and Hamilton on Sunday is "the key difference with a Lewis or a Max".
"They just decide," he told De Telegraaf. "Norris is a mega-talent, that's beyond dispute, and we don't have to discuss that. But he just doesn't have the same level of thinking and feeling as Lewis and Max.
"He's definitely not at that level yet. He always makes a lot of mistakes," Albers added. "Max and Lewis' lap times were also fluctuating by a tenth or so, but with Norris, it was different. He wasn't consistent."
Another ex-F1 driver, Ralf Schumacher, thinks that as McLaren returns to top-team status after a fallow period, the Woking based team is also demonstrating its immaturity.
"It's a question of mutual assistance between driver and team," he told motorsport-total.com, referring to McLaren's botched strategic decisions on Sunday.
"The driver and the team have to exchange information. How well did that happen in this case? I don't think Lando Norris is ready for such a fight yet," Schumacher added, despite Norris shaping up as Verstappen's closest contender for the 2024 title.
"It could also be a structural problem," the 6-time grand prix winner continued. "Perhaps Norris simply does not have a strong enough race engineer.
"He is also still very young. We saw how angry he was with himself, with the bad decisions he made - and that he wants to continue to grow. And yes, these moments are part of the growth process," Schumacher concluded.
Italian journalist Mario Donnini, however, has a much harsher assessment.
"Same old story," he wrote in Autosprint. "Nice guys never win.
"Since Miami, Lando Norris has had the best car of the lot, and yet in seven races in which he was playing with the best hand of cards, he has won only once.
"He is the least successful and effective top driver in the recent history of the sport," Donnini added. "In F1, as soon as you have the best single-seater, you have to pulverise everyone - otherwise you're done for."
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Maybe, but perhaps a different story if he truly had the outright fastest machinery next season from the beginning.
You could also turn it around and say Verstappen and Hamilton are very remarkable in making the right choices a lot of the time...
It's all easy to say in hindsight by those pundits who never even won an F1 title. Albers didn't even win an F1 race and ran over his pit crew in his last race... talking about bad decisions... hahaha
F1 drivers are just that, drivers, they're not pilots. When it comes right down to it probably not the best overall drivers in the world either. I mean look at what they call racing in F1...With needing DRS to pass and then your expected to pull over once and then wave your competitor by dont make it hard for your competitor to pass! What a joke! With all the rules about moving under braking, track limits, unsafe this unsafe that...definitely not the best drivers in the world. Id say Super Modified or Sprint car drivers are the best or Maybe even a Rally driver or two...guarantee there's a few better drivers out there than Perez, Sargeant, Stroll, Guanyu. Probably the best driver in the world has never even sat in a racecar.
Saying they are the best drivers in the world is a Joke in reality, as there are amazing drivers who have never either been interested in open wheelers, or not been given the opportunity because they don't live in Europe. The rules and Stewards are making F1 a joke of a category compared to what it used to be,. F1 used to push technology levels, and almost anything was allowed with a car, but now there are so many restrictions, and so many stupid decisions that it has lot it's premier status to me. Watching a Moto GP event is more exciting today, because they have fewer restrictions and much better officialdom.