🔗 Share this article

Despite the hype surrounding the Sin City Grand Prix, McLaren's lead driver is keeping a calm demeanor regarding his chances of securing his first drivers' championship.

Norris presently holds a two-dozen point advantage over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and leads Max Verstappen by 49 points, with just a maximum of eighty-three points up for grabs across the final three races. However, after staging a remarkable comeback from a significant deficit his teammate following the Zandvoort race in August, Norris is concentrating on executing with the methodical approach that propelled him to the lead of the standings.

"It can easily turn the opposite way again as much as I hope it doesn't," he stated. "That's racing, you know. Sometimes you get lucky. Other times you also be unlucky. No matter what happens. There's really no point getting excited or thinking about it. I continue to view it as a goal that remains distant."

Norris has found his best form at a crucial juncture—having struggled with the vehicle in the first part of the season—while his teammate has shed the controlled, nearly perfect composure that had for so long made him seem to be a future title winner. Notably, Norris kept a remarkable level of equanimity throughout, insisting even in the face of setbacks—like his retirement from the Dutch GP—that he would stick to his gameplan and approach each session with the same unwavering attention to detail. It has paid off.

Meanwhile, the team have worked hard to attempt to preserve a level playing field for their two drivers, and it has on occasion been a rather difficult process, most notably at Monza when the team directed the Australian to surrender second place to his teammate following he had fallen behind because of a slow pit stop. Some fans did not take well to what was seen as McLaren unnecessarily manipulating their competitors.

Norris has won the last two races, in Mexico City and Brazil, and was jeered on the winner's rostrum at both, leaving him unfazed. "Once you are on top, a lot of people want to bring you down. They don't want to see you winning. I see it as a good thing," he remarked.

"It makes me laugh. When I was on the winner's stage in Interlagos, I truly loved it. The experience was quite enjoyable. At last you sense that you are achieving success.

"It doesn't bother me, as long as I come out on top. As long as I feel like I am competing the correct manner, and I think I am, as long as I feel like I am dedicating hard work into remaining true to myself and those kinds of things, then I am not concerned with the rest of it."

Vegas, on the other hand, needs to be mastered, and it is a circuit suited to the British team. It shares characteristics with Montreal and Azerbaijan: low downforce, cool temperatures, and slippery surfaces. These are the sole pair of circuits in the current championship where the papaya squad have failed to secure at least one top-three finish, and the leader was cautious once more about their chances this weekend. Yet, his objective in the immediate future is straightforward: end the race in front of his teammate and the points he requires will follow.

Friday Running Sees Varied Results for Championship Contenders

Charles Leclerc led the times in FP1 on what was still a sandy and very slippery surface. The Williams racer was runner-up, with Verstappen fourth, Norris in P6, and Piastri eighth. During the more representative night running of second practice, the Briton was fastest ahead of the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, with his teammate down in fourteenth; however, the practice was interrupted for almost all of the final 20 minutes of running to check a reported loose manhole cover at turn 17.

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

The German Team Announce Stake Transaction

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their team principal the Austrian executive has sold a fifteen percent share in his holding company, equating to a five percent ownership in the squad, to American billionaire the cybersecurity magnate. The investor is the CEO and founder of the digital protection firm the tech giant. Wolff will stay on as boss and could earn as much as £230m from the sale, with Mercedes having been appraised at £4.57 billion, a record for an F1 team.