Lando Norris just watched his championship hopes take a serious hit with his DNF, and who better to offer advice than Max Verstappen – a driver who knows all about dealing with title-race setbacks.
Verstappen’s been there before. Back in 2021, he faced several potential championship-killers, including that dramatic crash at Silverstone, a tire blowout in Baku, and the controversial collision with Hamilton at Monza.
He’s felt that sinking feeling before.
In 2022, after Ferrari came out strong, Verstappen’s DNF in Australia had him thinking his title chances were toast. He obviously bounced back from that one.
Even during his record-smashing 2023 campaign, Verstappen had to deal with McLaren’s resurgence as they eventually claimed the Constructor’s championship. Norris made a decent run at Max’s driver’s title too, though the Dutchman never really looked in danger of losing it.
Verstappen offers Norris both wisdom and caution
Speaking after his home race at Zandvoort, Verstappen didn’t sugarcoat things when asked about Norris’ retirement.
“I mean, it’s out of your control. So, you just need to keep working hard, keep trying to win. As simple as that,” he said.
But then he pointed out something interesting – a challenge he’s never really faced himself.
“Especially when you are team-mates, you have the same car, same opportunities. It’s probably a little bit more complicated than when it’s two different teams.”
That’s a crucial difference. Verstappen’s battles have typically been against drivers from other teams, while Norris is fighting his own teammate Oscar Piastri.
“But still a lot of races and you can see things can swing. Like Oscar said, you don’t know if you get a mechanical failure or not, it’s out of your control.”
Max ended with some cautious optimism for the Brit.
“So yes, it’s not ideal, but there are enough races to either turn it around or not, and time will tell.”
With several races still to go, Norris will need to take that advice to heart if he wants to keep his title hopes alive.
