Norris working his "butt off" to win the championship
On the back of his third F1 victory, McLaren driver Lando Norris claims that he does not want to ponder about the championship, but he is working his "butt off to try and make sure that [it] happens."
Lando Norris took his third victory of the season, clinching a dominant triumph at the tough Singapore Grand Prix. The Briton's dominant win at Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix marked McLaren’s return to the top step of the Singapore podium, after a break of 15 years since Lewis Hamilton won in 2009.
With Max Verstappen returning to the podium after two tough rounds, Norris could only gain eight points on the Dutch driver, who still enjoys a healthy lead in the drivers' standings.
Asked whether he might close in on the reigning champion, Norris insisted that it might be a big ask from him and McLaren given Verstappen's track record and dominant form in the last three seasons.
"We have no idea, mate. I don't know. I can't tell the future, so... I'm working as hard as I can, like I just said. I'm sure Red Bull, Max as well, so... I'm sure there's going to be plenty of competition until the end of the year, and as a team, the only thing we can do is try and score the most points possible.
"That includes trying to win. Yeah, it's, again, a silly question. I mean, we're doing our best, and so are they. I hope so. I still have a lot of points I've got to catch up and it's not going to be easy to do it. It's against Red Bull and it's against Max, the most dominant pairing you've ever seen in Formula 1, from last year. And that's not necessarily changed in terms of… It's the same team and it's the same driver.
Pushed on to predict what might happen in the dying stages of the season, Norris refused to offer a prediction, but he praised McLaren for inventing technical solutions which have made the Woking-based outfit the quickest team currently.
"So I have some of the toughest competition that Formula 1 has ever seen in the sport. We are doing a better job as a team right now because my car and our car is quicker than theirs. But that's just credit to the team doing an amazing job and being smarter and doing cooler things and creating mini DRS flaps and stuff, you know.
"So it's just because that's the game and that's the people we're up against, the people who also do it and people who create these things. So I'm working my heart out, I'm working my butt off, to try and make sure that happens. He's trying to make sure it doesn't happen. So we'll have to wait and find out."
