Norris would be "silly" to rule out championship fight this year
Having fractionally missed out on a potential win in Mogyoród last Sunday, McLaren driver Lando Norris that he would be "silly" to rule out to fight for the championship this year.
Although the start of the 2024 F1 season indicated that Red Bull would run away with both titles as Max Verstappen displayed conquering pace and Sergio Perez also looked in great form, recent weeks saw the reigning world champion form lose its dominant form.
Ferrari have won two races with Carlos Sainz taking his third career triumph in Melbourne and Charles Leclerc securing an emotional home victory in Monaco. Mercedes have also collected two victories - George Russell emerges victories in Spielberg while Lewis Hamilton took his 104th career victory on home soil at Silverstone.
The rejuventaed McLaren have also claimed two triumphs - Lando Norris secured his maiden victory in Miami while his team-mate Oscar Piastri secured his own maiden triumph last time out in Mogyoród. More worrying of for Red Bull that McLaren appears to have overtaken the Milton Keynes-headquartered outfit in the pecking order.
Although Max Verstappen has a sizeable lead in the Drivers' Championship courtesy his early run of strong races, Lando Norris has closed the gap to 76 points.
Speaking of the pecking order, Norris said: "I mean, I said at the end of last year that we were going to win races this year. I said at the beginning of the year that it was not going to be an easy one for Red Bull, and all of that's come true. So I think we've done an amazing job as a team.
"So I think, first of all, we have to give credit to the team for giving us a car in order to do that. We've won today, but this is the second win of the year. Red Bull have had way more wins. Mercedes have almost had as many wins as we've had.
"Actually, they've had the same amount of wins as we've had. So just because we won one race today and we've had a dominant weekend doesn't mean we're the quickest car. I think maybe two weekends this year, we've had the best car of the grid. That's it. People can come up with their own opinions and say what they like.
"But, do we have opportunities to maybe win more? Yes. Did we necessarily have the quickest car on those days? I don't think so. But yeah, when I think of that, when I think of what we're doing now, what we are able to do in the future, you know, in the short term and also long term after summer break, and we have more days like today, then of course."
Asked whether he has a realistic chance to fight for the championship, the Briton commented: "You would be silly to say no. But don't get me wrong, I know it's like 70, 80 points that I got to catch up. So I know a lot of people are going to say that there's no chance, but I mean, we're going to keep fighting and I'm going to give myself the best opportunity to do so.
"You know, especially when you see Max today and Red Bull, not performing so well, making mistakes, crashing. You know, you want to make the most of those opportunities and plenty more can happen in the future. So, yes, I think it's still on. I know it's a big stretch and optimistic, like I said before, but I'm not going to say no to the challenge and definitely as a team, we won't.
"And psychologically, yeah, I'm happy. I'm ready. I still think, you know, if you throw back to Red Bull Ring, I did nothing wrong in this instance. It wasn't my fault. So I'm ready to go. I'm excited. I'm ready to battle. And I'm looking forward to the battles that we're going to have," concluded Norris.
