Verstappen’s Title March: Norris’ Struggles Go Deeper

Chandhok: Norris’ Hopes Faded in Season’s First Races

Despite a solid season, Norris’s title hopes slipped early, with Chandhok questioning McLaren’s strategy and Norris’s overall pace.

After the Brazilian Grand Prix, it’s almost certain: Max Verstappen is on course to secure his fourth world title in 2024.

His victory in São Paulo has once again widened the gap between him and his main title rival, Lando Norris. Yet Karun Chandhok is quick to critique McLaren, while also noting that Norris’s championship loss didn’t hinge solely on this race in Brazil.

After the race at Interlagos, Norris partly attributed Verstappen’s success to luck. The Brit had pitted before the red flag, while Verstappen, staying out, benefited from a free tyre change during the race pause.

Norris never managed to close the gap with his Dutch rival, who charged up from P17 to cross the finish line first, followed by two Alpine drivers. George Russell and Charles Leclerc also finished ahead of Norris’s McLaren.

Chandhok finds the excuses from Norris and his team unconvincing, suggesting they can’t lay all the blame on bad luck. “It’s not down to misfortune that Verstappen ended up in front,” he insists. If it had been only bad luck, Norris would at least have overtaken a few more drivers.

“With the same pace as Verstappen, he would have passed the Alpines and George Russell,” the former driver explains on Sky Sports F1’s podcast. “If Lando had Max’s pace, he would have overtaken George right from the start, even after losing places off the line. Instead, we saw him off the track at least two or three times,” Chandhok observes.

For him, it was indeed a lack of pace, not misfortune, that cost Norris the Brazilian Grand Prix. “He simply didn’t have the pace to challenge his championship rival,” asserts the Indian expert. Nevertheless, he dismisses the notion that Norris lost the championship in this single race in Brazil. “In reality, Lando can be proud of his season,” Chandhok maintains. “The championship wasn’t lost on a Sunday in São Paulo. It was lost in the first five races,” he explains.

A Title Lost Much Earlier in the Season

At the season’s start, Verstappen’s RB20 already appeared relatively dominant, though the gap with other teams was smaller than the RB19’s in 2023. “Looking back at those first races, that’s where Max built his advantage,” Chandhok says, comparing the situation to Jenson Button’s title-winning 2009 season with Brawn GP. “Overall, they can be happy with their season and the points they’ve accumulated,” he adds. “But with a 52-point deficit as early as Miami, the championship was essentially over,” Chandhok concludes, supported by Bernie Collins.

Through this analysis, Chandhok highlights that despite the valiant efforts of Norris and McLaren this season, the path to the title was blocked as early as the opening rounds.