🔗 Share this article

Amid the excitement around the Sin City Grand Prix, McLaren's lead driver is maintaining a level head about his prospects of securing his first drivers' championship.

Norris currently holds a 24-point advantage over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with only up to 83 points up for grabs across the remaining trio of events. However, after staging a extraordinary comeback from a significant deficit his teammate after the Dutch Grand Prix in the summer, Norris is focused on executing with the methodical approach that propelled him to the lead of the standings.

"Things can easily turn in the other direction again as much as I don't want it to," he commented. "That's racing, as we all know. You can get lucky. Other times you end up unlucky. No matter what happens. There's really not worth becoming overjoyed or thinking about it. I continue to view it as something that's quite far away."

The 26-year-old has found his peak performance at a critical juncture—having struggled with the car in the opening half of the campaign—while Piastri has lost the disciplined, nearly perfect composure that previously made him seem to be a champion in waiting. Notably, Norris kept a remarkable level of composure all along, asserting despite challenges—like his retirement from the Dutch GP—that he would adhere to his strategy and work each session with the identical relentless attention to detail. This approach has paid off.

Meanwhile, the team have worked hard to try to preserve a fair competition for their two drivers, and it has on occasion been a rather difficult experience, especially at Monza when the team instructed the Australian to cede second place to his teammate after he had fallen behind due to a slow pit stop. Some fans did not take well to what was considered the team unnecessarily interfering with their competitors.

Norris has won the last two races, in Mexico and São Paulo, and was jeered on the winner's rostrum at each, leaving him unfazed. "When you're leading, many people want to bring you down. They do not like seeing you winning. I consider it a positive sign," he said.

"It just amuses me. When I was on the podium in Interlagos, I truly enjoyed it. The experience was very satisfying. You finally sense that you are achieving something right.

"I don't mind, as long as I win. As long as I feel like I'm doing it the correct way, which I feel like I am, so long as I am confident I am dedicating hard work into remaining true to myself and those kinds of things, then I'm not too fussed about the rest of it."

Vegas, on the other hand, needs to be mastered, and it is a circuit suited to the McLaren. The layout has characteristics with Montreal and Azerbaijan: low downforce, cool temperatures, and low grip. They are the only two circuits in the current championship where McLaren have failed to claim at least one top-three finish, and the leader was circumspect once more about their prospects in Nevada. Yet, his objective in the immediate future is straightforward: finish in front of Piastri and the points he needs will follow.

Practice Sees Mixed Outcomes for Title Contenders

Charles Leclerc led the leaderboard in first practice on what was remained a sandy and extremely low-grip track. The Williams racer was runner-up, with Verstappen fourth, the McLaren ace in P6, and Piastri eighth. In the more representative night running of second practice, Norris was fastest ahead of the Mercedes of the Italian rookie, with his teammate 14th; however, the session was interrupted for nearly the last third of running to inspect a suspected unsecured manhole cover at the penultimate corner.

The issue is taken seriously on a temporary track where, at the inaugural Las Vegas GP staged in 2023, a loose manhole smashed into Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, severely damaging it and leading to the session to be ended.

The German Team Announce Ownership Transaction

Mercedes have confirmed that their team principal the Austrian executive has sold a fifteen percent share in his holding company, equating to a 5% share in the squad, to American billionaire George Kurtz. Kurtz is the chief executive and creator of the cybersecurity company the tech giant. The team principal will remain as team principal and may receive up to £230m from the deal, with Mercedes having been valued at £4.57 billion, a record for an Formula 1 constructor.