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Norris’s Race Blunders Concern Rosberg

Rosberg: Norris Must Iron Out Errors for Title

25/09/2024

Nico Rosberg criticizes Lando Norris’s frequent race errors, stressing the need for improvement if he aims for the championship.

Nico Rosberg believes Lando Norris still makes too many mistakes, both at the start and during races. The 2016 World Champion was surprised by the number of missteps from the McLaren F1 driver during the Singapore race, even though he understands the pressure is intense.

“I think when everyone keeps saying ‘Lando, you’ve been on pole seven times, and seven times you’ve finished the first lap not in first, what are you doing wrong and are you worried about repeating that tomorrow?’, it really starts to add a lot of pressure,” Rosberg said on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

“Because you really start to wonder whether you’re capable of making a good start and if you’re going to mess it up again. It adds a lot of pressure. I think he was under pressure, especially at the start. Once again, he proved himself.”

“Where things got really strange was in the mistakes he made during the race. I was a bit baffled by what happened because he hit the wall twice. In both instances, these were very serious moments, almost ending his race, and he was lucky not to be knocked out.”

“Once, he went off the track by several kilometers in a hairpin, not a minor track exit, but a massive track exit, and the other time, he hit the same wall that George Russell did last year when he went off the track in the final lap. He went off the track again when he overtook a competitor, which was the Williams, and he went off the track again. So there were three moments.”

“I don’t remember myself, or a Max Verstappen, or a Lewis [Hamilton], while leading so comfortably, having made three major mistakes. It was a bit strange. I know Singapore is very challenging, to focus, physically it was very hard.”

“I don’t know what it’s due to. But we know from Lando that he tends to make these little mistakes all the time, everywhere. We’ve seen it, and he needs to correct that if he wants to fight for the championship this year.”

Despite this, Rosberg is convinced that Norris can still challenge Verstappen for the title: “More than the victory, it’s the performances and the speed that matter. This will scare Red Bull, because with this speed until the end of the year, it’s realistic to think that Lando can really win all the remaining races.”

“For Max, it seems difficult to finish second. So, the world championship is still ongoing. It’s almost impossible for Max to finish second all the time because of Oscar [Piastri]’s presence. Moreover, Oscar has been performing very well in general. He will take points from Max. So that’s a big problem.”

“And Max won’t be happy that F1 has introduced all these Sprint races because those three times eight points… it’s a lot of points. It’s huge. With the way his car is performing, it adds a lot of pressure to Max. I really think it could go down to the wire, which is incredibly exciting.”

Norris’s Race Blunders Concern Rosberg

Norris’s Race Blunders Concern Rosberg Norris’s Race Blunders Concern Rosberg

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