Lando Norris rubbished Max Verstappen’s claim that he would do much better in the McLaren than either of its current drivers.
He also indicated his scepticism over how serious Red Bull’s problems are with its car.
Verstappen beat him to victory at Suzuka, capturing pole position by a hundredth of a second and keeping Norris at bay throughout the 53-lap race. Afterwards he claimed he would have been much further ahead if he was driving a McLaren.
Norris rejected Verstappen’s claim. “I don’t mind, he can say what he wants,” said the McLaren driver. “I don’t care, honestly. Everyone can say what they want and believe what they want.
“I believe both Oscar [Piastri] and myself are good drivers. He is maybe better at some things but he is not better in every area.
“I have a lot of respect for Max but I also know some things are not true, he can come and test our car any day that he wants and I’ll be excited to see the disappointment on his face after he gets out.”
Norris leads Verstappen by a single point at the top of the championship standings. Over four races so far, including the sprint event at Shanghai, each has finished in front of the other twice.
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While Norris admitted he could be further ahead, he also cast doubt on how serious Red Bull’s problems are with their RB21 chassis.
“It’s been a good start, I’m still leading. Could things have been slightly better, yes, but they’re not.
“Max and Red Bull have done a good job with a car that they say they’ve been struggling with. But for the same case we know our struggles, we know how tricky our car is to drive.
“It’s quick, and we acknowledge all of these things and the stuff people say, but we’ve also made some mistakes and we know we have to improve in certain areas.”
With three out of 24 rounds completed, Norris foresees a long championship fight with Verstappen. “We’ve got a long way to go, we have a lot of work we need to do still on this car before we can focus on next year.
“I’ve had some great results, especially in the main races [grands prix]. Of course, I lost a few points and a few in the sprint race in China.
“It’s been a good start, but there’s still plenty of opportunities for us to improve and still to do better than we’ve been doing and we need to do better because Max is close behind and I’m sure he’s going to be close behind for a long time.”
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