The 2024 Formula 1 season continues to thrill fans with high-octane battles, strategic duels, and the ever-present question: can anyone truly challenge Max Verstappen and Red Bull for race wins? The recent weekend was no exception, as Lando Norris once again found himself tantalizingly close to the reigning world champion, igniting debates about whether he truly had the pace—and perhaps the opportunity—to convert promise into victory.
Norris, driving for a resurgent McLaren outfit, has been inching ever closer to the top step of the podium. In the latest Grand Prix, he showcased not only incredible racecraft but also demonstrated just how far the McLaren MCL38 has come since the early stages of the previous campaign. Throughout the weekend, Norris shadowed Verstappen in almost every session, raising hopes among the papaya-clad faithful that the Dutch driver might finally face a sustained challenge when it mattered most.
But as the lights went out and the Grand Prix unfolded, subtleties of tyre strategy, track evolution, and outright pace revealed themselves. Norris was able to keep Verstappen honest throughout the majority of the race, benefitting from strong race starts and clean early laps. The crowd’s anticipation grew as Norris, at several points, managed to bring the gap below two seconds, keeping the defending champion within reaching distance. Yet, as so often in this turbo-hybrid era, small margins differentiated the good from the great—and the potential from the realised.
The key battleground once more became tyre management. Verstappen, known for his ability to extract maximum performance while preserving rubber, managed his hard-compound tyres with trademark precision. Norris, on the other hand, had to push in the opening laps to close the undercut window as the pit stops approached. This early aggression, while necessary, ultimately cost him valuable grip towards the end of the stints. The McLaren appeared to move beautifully in clean air, but the turbulent wake behind the Red Bull subtly disturbed Norris’s aerodynamics, adding to the complexity of his task.
Strategically, McLaren played a near-flawless game but found themselves boxed in by Red Bull’s superior track position. Verstappen was able to pit just before Norris twice, effectively neutralising any undercut attempts by McLaren. The Red Bull pit crew’s precise and rapid stops only compounded the disadvantage, ensuring Norris always had to react—never dictate—the strategic narrative. As fans have witnessed so often in recent years, control of the pit stop window often decides modern Formula 1 races as much as raw on-track pace.
However, Norris’s late-race pace turned heads. During the final stint, armed with a lighter car and increasingly rubbered-in track, the Briton unleashed a flurry of fast laps. For several exciting laps, he was the fastest driver on track, closing in on Verstappen at a rate that momentarily threatened an electrifying showdown. Yet, traffic—and perhaps a breath of fortune for Red Bull—intervened, denying Norris the chance to launch a concerted attack in the dying moments.
What does all this mean for the championship battle? The signs are unmistakably positive for McLaren and Lando Norris. The Woking-based team seems to have bridged the performance gap to Red Bull, at least on certain circuits and under the right conditions. If they can find incremental gains in tyre strategy, pit stop efficiency, and qualifying performances, further victories are very much within reach. For Verstappen and Red Bull, however, this race served as a reminder that dominance cannot breed complacency—the competition is closing in fast.
As the Formula 1 circus heads to its next thrilling stop, fans can relish the prospect of more wheel-to-wheel battles and the growing likelihood that the era of Red Bull invincibility may be drawing to a close. Norris and McLaren smell blood, and as the European summer advances, the fight at the sharp end of the grid promises to be more intense—and unpredictable—than ever.
