2024 Chinese GP

[avantman]

Norris is going to win a race this season, he is nearly getting there.

He just needs one track where they are almost competitive and then a bit of luck.

To me Norris is really a complete package. People say he is not a killer but I don’t believe he won’t fight nail and tooth when it is needed.

Another wet qualifying where RB don't get their tyres working and where it's not easy to pass would work well for Lando. Could leave RB and Ferrari down the order. Tracks like Singapore, or perhaps even Miami and Imola.. maybe we dont have to wait long

very easy to find an excuse and blame the tires. perez was on a lap easily good enough for P2 (not too far off Lando) if not for mistake in the final corner. Couldn't have been possible if his tires weren't working. and more than obvious, tire warm-up issues could not absolutely explain a mistake in very last corner of a long lap. Both RB drivers just made mistakes. they were fast otherwise, even if not quite as fast as lando.

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He just needs one track where they are almost competitive and then a bit of luck.

To me Norris is really a complete package. People say he is not a killer but I don’t believe he won’t fight nail and tooth when it is needed.

Another wet qualifying where RB don't get their tyres working and where it's not easy to pass would work well for Lando. Could leave RB and Ferrari down the order. Tracks like Singapore, or perhaps even Miami and Imola.. maybe we dont have to wait long

very easy to find an excuse and blame the tires. perez was on a lap easily good enough for P2 (not too far off Lando) if not for mistake in the final corner. Couldn't have been possible if his tires weren't working. and more than obvious, tire warm-up issues could not absolutely explain a mistake in very last corner of a long lap. Both RB drivers just made mistakes. they were fast otherwise, even if not quite as fast as lando.

Tyre temps with Perez went up throughout Q3 who made the error whereas for Max temps went down and just kept going down. That's according to AMuS/Marko. Rb don't know why it happened for Max but not Perez despite setups being the same

[PlatinumZealot]

Norris blows it in the big moments. He will never win in not the fastest car.

[chrisc90]

Norris blows it in the big moments. He will never win in not the fastest car.

Norris had a faultless GP to be fair. Sprint race was a bit unfortunate with the turn 1 and Lewis, but hindsight he had the car to pass Lewis after how it performed in the GP.

Of course, you have Mighty Max to contend with, which I dont think he would have held back over the course of the sprint.

I like Norris, he's a good driver, has the occasional moment, but I will always say he was silly for not taking the seat alongside Max in the RB. He would of been there to pick up the slack on the rare off day from Max. 2022, (and some of 2021) you werent going to beat Max Verstappen easily unless he had a off day. The amount of wins in the last 2 and a bit seasons proves that, but if your alongside him, you stand more of a chance of taking that win than being in another car.

[Vettel165]

Lando has amazing race pace and tyre management , If he had the car he could easy deliver the win.

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Norris can be a top driver. However I feel he only really becomes this when he has Hamilton in his mirrors or sights

[chrisc90]

Norris can be a top driver. However I feel he only really becomes this when he has Hamilton in his mirrors or sights

Doesn’t explain this weekends performance.

Hope McLaren have a decent upgrade for them. P4/5 is a good target for the WDC for him

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Norris can be a top driver. However I feel he only really becomes this when he has Hamilton in his mirrors or sights

Doesn’t explain this weekends performance.

Hope McLaren have a decent upgrade for them. P4/5 is a good target for the WDC for him

Norris' gap to Verstappen per lap was larger than all other weekends this year. The main thing that made his performance look exceptional was an extreme underperformance from Ferrari which takes 2 cars out that would normally be in between RB and McLaren

Still it was a good drive but for me it was a run-of-the-mill Norris drive

[DGP123]

Agree. Good driver, but prone to silly errors. My issue with him has always been a lack of ruthlessness in his character. I’d rather see less of the cheeky chappy cosying up to Max for a laugh, and to show a more steely side. Think a drivers level/rep is always enhanced with a teammate going through struggles too, as Piastri is.

I think a win will eventually come, but rejecting RB showed to me that he’s not got the balls to really do great things in F1. Just my thoughts.

[chrisc90]

Norris can be a top driver. However I feel he only really becomes this when he has Hamilton in his mirrors or sights

Doesn’t explain this weekends performance.

Hope McLaren have a decent upgrade for them. P4/5 is a good target for the WDC for him

Norris' gap to Verstappen per lap was larger than all other weekends this year. The main thing that made his performance look exceptional was an extreme underperformance from Ferrari which takes 2 cars out that would normally be in between RB and McLaren

Still it was a good drive but for me it was a run-of-the-mill Norris drive

Max’s pace is just unrivalled. Ain’t nobody getting close anytime soon. He enjoyed China. The car was on rails. One thing is that max will never lie about the car in the post session interviews. If he says the balance is good, he’s happy, if he says they need to find a little bit more from somewhere, the car isn’t in its element. He said it was on rails, so you know that car is going to be exceptional. (I do wonder, if any other drivers understand their car as well as max understand his)

I think a fairer comparison would be to compare to Checo, that way comparisons would probably fall more in line. Max is a minimum half a second a lap faster than anyone else. Thinking about it it’s more driving style than anything else, as the lap times prove.

A little Ferrari under performance yeah, but let’s not discredit McLaren this weekend. It’s still a decent fight for that second fastest team spot.

@DPG - Lando and max are good buddies. They have a great laugh together and often race online together. But I agree, he should probably show a bit more of his steely side. He could defend more against a charging Max, but ultimately, who ends up worse by doing so. It’ll only be the car being overtaken - which is why I think a lot of drivers don’t bother to put up much of a fight. As it just compromises their race

[dialtone]

Doesn’t explain this weekends performance.

Hope McLaren have a decent upgrade for them. P4/5 is a good target for the WDC for him

Norris' gap to Verstappen per lap was larger than all other weekends this year. The main thing that made his performance look exceptional was an extreme underperformance from Ferrari which takes 2 cars out that would normally be in between RB and McLaren

Still it was a good drive but for me it was a run-of-the-mill Norris drive

Max’s pace is just unrivalled. Ain’t nobody getting close anytime soon. He enjoyed China. The car was on rails. One thing is that max will never lie about the car in the post session interviews. If he says the balance is good, he’s happy, if he says they need to find a little bit more from somewhere, the car isn’t in its element. He said it was on rails, so you know that car is going to be exceptional. (I do wonder, if any other drivers understand their car as well as max understand his)

I think a fairer comparison would be to compare to Checo, that way comparisons would probably fall more in line. Max is a minimum half a second a lap faster than anyone else. Thinking about it it’s more driving style than anything else, as the lap times prove.

A little Ferrari under performance yeah, but let’s not discredit McLaren this weekend. It’s still a decent fight for that second fastest team spot.

Max was winning on foot I think. At least 3s a lap faster on foot, he actually went slower by driving.

[Seanspeed]

Norris blows it in the big moments. He will never win in not the fastest car.

Norris would have won this GP if Max had an issue like he did in Australia. If you can come 2nd, you can win a race. The difference can easily just be a matter of luck.

[PlatinumZealot]

Yup. I'm saying when he gets the big moments he seems to blow it.

I like the driver.. But it's five years of racing now.. He has never yet seemed to snatch a "victory" that shouldn't have been his.

[Seanspeed]

Norris is going to win a race this season, he is nearly getting there.

He just needs one track where they are almost competitive and then a bit of luck.

To me Norris is really a complete package. People say he is not a killer but I don’t believe he won’t fight nail and tooth when it is needed.

He defends super hard when he needs to. And is smart to not defend when he knows it's not his race. I think his racecraft is very solid.

He's very good, but not convinced he's a genuine top talent. Sainz generally bested him at Mclaren.

"But Norris has grown since then" - well my personal take and observation is that the best are pretty much always great straight away. And it's not like Sainz was some veteran when they were teammates.

[TeamKoolGreen]

Norris is going to win a race this season, he is nearly getting there.

he has never been closer than almost three years back in 2021. he hasn't come closer this year, no Idea why you believe something will change this year. mind you, prior to China, he has finished 2nd to Max 5 times already. and he wasn't really any closer today.

Part of it is the team. McLaren was close in 2021 so he stayed. Then they take 2 or 3 steps backwards. Now they are back to where they were in 2021 and he signed again. Despite having an opportunity come up at Red Bull. Now he's stuck at McLaren again

And now he's in a Hulkenberg situation. The longer the lack of wins streak goes , the more pressure that piles up each time he has a chance.

He should have went to Red Bull. He'd be able to get wins.