Marko: Verstappen Stronger - Norris Lacks Mental Toughness

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko believes Verstappen’s mental resilience surpasses Norris, making him the favorite for the 2024 F1 title.

If “mental strength” is the deciding factor in 2024, Max Verstappen will secure his fourth consecutive world drivers’ championship. That’s the view of Red Bull advisor and long-time Verstappen mentor, Dr. Helmut Marko, who contrasted the Dutchman’s resilience with that of his main title rival, Lando Norris.

“Norris, as we know, has certain weaknesses at the starts,” Marko told motorsport-magazin.com. “And as I’ve read, he has weaknesses in other areas too. For example, he needs to follow certain rituals on race day to perform well.”

Norris, two years younger than his off-track friend Verstappen, has openly admitted that he often feels so nervous before a race that he struggles to eat or drink. Marko joked that Red Bull might consider offering Norris a bite to eat at the next race: “In Barcelona, with their burnt cuisine, we offered this to McLaren, but it wasn’t accepted.”

For Marko, there’s no doubt Verstappen is the favorite for the title, despite his 52-point lead shrinking and the car facing challenges: “He’s the best, the fastest, and in terms of mental strength, the most secure.”

He also believes McLaren needs more time to fully convert the car’s superior performance into trophies and titles: “You can see that McLaren has made a relatively large number of errors, both strategically and operationally.”

“You have to learn that first. We lost the world championship in 2009, even though we had the fastest car in the second half of the season, because we weren’t mature enough as a team yet.”

Former F1 driver Timo Glock told web.de that he sees more pressure on Verstappen’s shoulders: “The pressure is mainly on Verstappen because he has to manage the lead. For Norris, he just needs to take each race as it comes and win them all. That’s all he can do.”

Glock agrees with Marko that the Dutchman has the advantage: “Max gained a lot of experience during the 2021 title fight against Lewis Hamilton. He knows how to handle tense and difficult situations.”

New Audi F1 boss, Mattia Binotto, stated last week that he believes Red Bull’s cycle of success is coming to an end: “Cycles have a beginning and an end, as always in F1,” he told Corriere della Sera. “And Red Bull’s is at the end.”

Glock shares this view: “There have been so many disruptions at Red Bull that we’re seeing even a top team can stumble. They now need to find the cause of the sporting decline, whether it’s the outdated wind tunnel, the floor, or something else.”