🔗 Share this article

Amid all hype surrounding the Sin City Grand Prix, McLaren's lead driver is keeping a level head regarding his prospects of claiming his maiden world title.

The British driver currently has a two-dozen point advantage over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and leads Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with just up to 83 points up for grabs across the remaining trio of events. However, after pulling off a remarkable comeback from 34 points behind Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix in the summer, Norris is concentrating on performing with the clinical precision that propelled him to the top of the championship.

"It can easily go in the other direction again even though I hope it doesn't," he stated. "That's racing, you know. Sometimes you get lucky. You can end up unfortunate. Whatever it may be. It's not worth becoming overjoyed or dwelling on it. I still do see it as a goal that's quite far away."

The 26-year-old has found his best form at a critical moment—having struggled with the car in the first part of the season—at the same time that Piastri has shed the controlled, almost flawless composure that previously made him appear to be a future title winner. Importantly, Norris kept a remarkable level of equanimity throughout, asserting despite setbacks—such as his retirement from the Zandvoort race—that he would adhere to his strategy and approach every outing with the same relentless attention to detail. This approach has paid off.

All the while, McLaren have gone to no little effort to attempt to preserve a fair competition for their two drivers, and it has on occasion been a rather torturous experience, most notably at Monza when the squad instructed Piastri to surrender second place to Norris after he had fallen behind due to a delayed tire change. Certain spectators were unhappy with what was seen as the team unnecessarily interfering with their drivers.

Norris has won the last two races, in Mexico and São Paulo, and was booed on the podium at both, leaving him unmoved. "Once you are on top, many individuals want to bring you down. They don't like seeing you succeeding. I see it as a positive sign," he said.

"It amuses me. While standing on the winner's stage in Interlagos, I truly loved it. It was quite satisfying. At last you feel like you're doing something right.

"I don't mind, provided that I come out on top. If I believe I'm doing it the right manner, which I feel like I am, as long as I feel like I'm putting hard work into being who I am and similar principles, then I am not concerned with external opinions."

Vegas, on the other hand, must be mastered, and it is a circuit suited to the British team. It shares similarities with Montreal and Baku: low downforce, chilly conditions, and slippery surfaces. These are the only two tracks in the current championship where McLaren have failed to claim at least one top-three finish, and Norris was circumspect again about their prospects this weekend. Yet, his task in the immediate future is straightforward: end the race in ahead of his teammate and the championship tally he requires will come.

Friday Running Shows Varied Results for Championship Rivals

Charles Leclerc led the leaderboard in first practice on what was still a sandy and extremely slippery track. The Williams racer was runner-up, with Verstappen in fourth, the McLaren ace sixth, and the Australian eighth. In the more representative evening session of FP2, the Briton was fastest ahead of the Silver Arrows of Kimi Antonelli, with his teammate 14th; however, the practice lost almost all of the last third of running to check a suspected unsecured manhole cover at the penultimate corner.

The issue is taken seriously on a street circuit where, at the inaugural Nevada GP held in 2023, a loose manhole struck Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, severely damaging it and leading to the session to be aborted.

Mercedes Announce Stake Transaction

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their boss Toto Wolff has divested a 15% stake in his investment firm, equating to a 5% share in the squad, to American billionaire George Kurtz. Kurtz is the CEO and founder of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The team principal will remain as team principal and could earn up to £230m from the deal, with Mercedes having been appraised at £4.57bn, a record for an F1 team.