Lando Norris has led at some point in the last four F1 races but failed to win any of them; Norris is Max Verstappen's closest challenger but finds himself with a big points deficit at the halfway mark of the season; watch the Hungarian GP on July 19-21 on Sky Sports F1
Wednesday 10 July 2024 16:42, UK
Lando Norris' failure in recent weeks to convert huge opportunities to add to his maiden Formula 1 victory has seen the Brit miss out on the opportunity to apply pressure to Max Verstappen.
Norris' third place at the British Grand Prix was the latest race where McLaren were left wondering what might have been after failing to fulfil the potential of the MCL38.
The 24-year-old could quite feasibly have won five of the last six races but mistakes from the team and Norris himself, have left him 84 points behind world championship leader Verstappen in the drivers' standings at the halfway point of the season.
That gap could have been far smaller, with Sunday's British Grand Prix the latest example of Norris being left to rue his race execution as Verstappen finished ahead of him and Lewis Hamilton took the home glory.
Sky Sports F1 takes a look at how many points Norris has possibly dropped and where things have gone wrong for McLaren.
Norris was leading the Canadian Grand Prix after managing his intermediate tyres well in the first stint and had opened up an 11-second advantage when Logan Sargeant crashed.
A Safety Car seemed likely and confirmed in time to give McLaren a couple of seconds to bring Norris in for a pit stop at a time when he would have retained the lead.
However, they sent him around again and Norris got stuck behind the Safety Car while Verstappen and George Russell pitted. The time lost behind the Safety Car meant Norris emerged in third following his pit stop.
Norris nearly overtook Verstappen when the drivers switched to dry tyres, but was forced to settle for second in the mixed conditions.
Norris snatched pole position from Verstappen with a brilliant qualifying lap at the Spanish Grand Prix.
However, he dropped to third after Turn One when he got a slightly worse start than Verstappen and both drivers were overtaken by Russell.
Verstappen quickly got by Russell but Norris was stuck behind him for 12 laps. McLaren offset their strategy to Red Bull which left Norris with an eight-second gap with 18 laps to go.
The Briton crossed the line two seconds behind Verstappen and was left to think about his launch off the line.
"The car was incredible. I think we were, for sure, the quickest. I just lost it in the beginning," he said.
"Disappointed. But a lot of positives, one negative, and that kind of ruined everything. I know that. I can just work on it for next time."
In the Austrian Grand Prix Sprint, Norris briefly took the lead with a lunge on Verstappen into Turn Three. However, the Dutchman got his rival straight back at the next corner as the McLaren driver somewhat careless left the door open, with insult added to injury as his team-mate Oscar Piastri also slipped by.
Norris admitted he should have defended from Verstappen and, 24 hours later, the pair went head-to-head again.
A rare slow Red Bull pit stop put Norris on Verstappen's tail on the final stint, and both drivers raced aggressively. On Lap 64, they collided at Turn Three and Norris was forced to retire as Verstappen came home in fifth.
Whatever you think about Verstappen's driving, Norris had several opportunities to make the move but could not get it done.
"I thought it was, as a review, good racing," reflected Norris in the days after Austria.
"At times, maybe very close to the edge but like we said we've spoken about it, we've talked about it and we're both happy to go racing again."
Norris was on course to win the British Grand Prix as he led with 14 laps to go, with McLaren just needing to execute a required switch back to slick tyres on the drying surface.
However, he went one lap too long and then overshot his pit box, leaving him to be comfortably undercut by eventual race-winner Hamilton.
But even more significantly, Norris was strangely put on the soft tyres, despite a discussion about using the medium compound he had available in the build-up to the last pit stop.
Not only did the tyre choice blow Norris' chances of chasing down Hamilton, but worse still, a charging Verstappen cruised by - on the hard compound - on a day where Red Bull had the third best car.
"McLaren were in the best position, as they had two sets of the medium-compound tyre," said Martin Brundle on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast.
"They put it on Piastri's car and he absolutely flew. If you look at how much he closed in on Hamilton and Norris in the last few laps of the race, Piastri, had he not been disadvantaged with having to stay out to avoid double stacking earlier on in the race, would have been right in there.
"I think the choice clearly was we are going to put the best possible tyre on and that was the medium compound. It was a defensive decision, whereas the mindset should have been 'let's go for what should be fastest and we will make it work'.
"They came in late with Lando, who shot past his pit box and it was a slow stop. If you add it all up, it cost them a certain victory."
Since winning the Miami Grand Prix, McLaren have been in contention to win the last six races.
Imola was always going to be difficult to win, despite Norris finishing within one second of Verstappen at the line.
In Monaco, Charles Leclerc delivered a great pole lap as Piastri started second, with Carlos Sainz third and Norris fourth. That was the finishing order of the Grand Prix.
For the first time in his career, Norris is experiencing what it is like to fight at the front every weekend, where the spotlight is brighter and small mistakes will be punished by a champion driver like Verstappen.
"The near misses is, first of all, a point of view of good news," said McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.
"We didn't have these kind of near misses until 12 months ago. We need to look at the positives. We need to look at the fact that the team is in condition to be frustrated because we are P3 in the podium [at Silverstone] with the other driver P4. And, once again, the team scored most points.
"So, if we don't start from the positives, from the building side, we're going to be the ones that 'build and destroy, build and destroy' and we stay always at the same level."
Had Norris won the last four races, which was very possible, the title race would look very different.
Instead of being 84 points behind Verstappen, he would be just 26 points adrift with 12 races remaining.
Next up for F1 is the Hungarian Grand Prix from Budapest on July 19-21. You can watch every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership - No contract, cancel anytime
