An analysis of how Lando Norris got the better of Max Verstappen on the Red Bull driver’s home turf.
Lando Norris and McLaren’s conquest of Zandvoort proved utterly dominant. The young Briton drove an upgraded McLaren to new highs today. He maximised the potential of his machine to take his second Formula One victory around the rollercoaster Zandvoort circuit.
“Their car was on a different league today,” quipped Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal, after his triple world champion driver finished a distant second. Verstappen and Red Bull had dominated the same race he’d dominated for three straight years prior. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko termed this victory “alarming.” The all-conquering McLaren suddenly looked like a different beast, a firm challenger for the constructors. Norris even stands an outside shot at dethroning Verstappen at the top.
It was the first time a driver took victory by over 20 seconds to the Dutchman in three years, the last instance being even before the current regulations came into effect.
But what aided the McLaren’s charge around the ups and downs Zandvoort had to offer? How does this bode for the remaining rounds of 2024?
McLaren upgrades do the trick
Ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, McLaren was one among many teams to bring upgrades to the event. They entered the second half of the season with as many as six updates to their MCL38, as reported by LWOS.
Two of these included revised suspension updates. They proved key when it came to sustaining performance around the bumpy corners of Zandvoort. This meant the papaya team themselves headed into the weekend as strong contenders for victory.
The McLaren had generally displayed a strong turn of pace around downforce-oriented circuits. They had emerged as a strong contender ever since the updates brought at Miami translated into a maiden victory for Norris, amid a flurry of podium finishes to boot.
The Woking-based outfit has traditionally designed cars strong across medium and high-speed corners. However, what made the biggest difference on the MCL38 was their slow-speed handling, a weakness the team had managed to fix in 2024. This was evidenced by their performances around Monaco and Hungary. Both tracks featured a range of slower corners in their repertoire.
The trio of free practice sessions didn’t provide much data to draw from, either. While FP1 ran in mixed conditions, FP3 was largely curtailed due to Logan Sargeant’s heavy crash on the exit of turn 3. Yet, once the stats were crunched, it was McLaren boasting the quickest car, the rest chasing the advantage.
Norris dominates Zandvoort qualifying with a special lap
An enthralling qualifying session followed, and Norris only flexed the British outfit’s advantage in the crucial Q3 session. It was almost as though the British driver had found a new gear on his final Q3 lap, as he pulled out a whopping margin to the rest.
A 0.356-second gap in a 70-second lap is nothing to scoff at. It only highlighted how McLaren’s strengths played to the track’s traits. Much of this advantage was down to how Norris tackled the exits of turns 1 and 3. The Red Bull was a much harder beast to steer in the Dutch driver’s hands. Verstappen was aghast as he complained of the car not turning effectively.
On the other hand, Norris and his more compliant McLaren meant he accelerated sooner off turns 1 and 3. He also approached the banked turn 3 at a shallower angle to Verstappen. This minimised his line onto the exit of the corner. The result was smoother steering and a crucial 4-6 km/h advantage in the ensuing speed section.
This gave him a healthy 0.249 advantage after the first sector, a massive gap for the Dutchman to overcome. The middle sector saw Verstappen push as hard as he could, to make up time in the corners. Norris, on the other hand, experienced a minor moment of oversteer on the exit of the tricky turn ten.
While Verstappen clawed back nearly a tenth of a second, the gap grew once again in the final sector. A bout of oversteer into turn 12 cost the Dutchman valuable time. With Norris’s McLaren once again taking the kerbs with ease, the gap grew to 0.356s in the end. Norris had laid down the gauntlet to achieve the unthinkable of beating Max Verstappen at Zandvoort.
McLaren and Lando Norris thrive at Zandvoort on race day
Once again, Norris failed to convert pole into the lead at the start of the race. However, Norris’s McLaren was comfortably the quicker car on race day at Zandvoort. This was made evident by Norris’s McLaren being able to remain in DRS range early in the race.
A slight mistake from Verstappen at the tricky turn ten put Norris’s McLaren onto his tail. The Briton capitalised, taking the lead heading on to lap 18. The Dutch racer was powerless to defend, his mediums losing grip, evidenced by oversteer at turn 1.
From then on, Norris and McLaren proved to be the quickest cars on the track. While teammate Oscar Piastri was mired in traffic, Norris went from strength to strength. He continued to open up the gap, as Verstappen fell further out of contention with every passing lap.
The McLaren’s dominance around Zandvoort was on show right until the end. Norris snatched the fastest lap on the final lap, stamping his authority at Verstappen’s backyard. It was indicative of an utterly peerless drive from a budding youngster.
The extra point for fastest lap helped Norris and McLaren get ever closer to the Red Bull after Zandvoort, with the constructors’ championship continuing to close up once again. Norris sits 70 points off Verstappen, while McLaren are only 30 points off the lead in the constructors’ standings.
Strong signs for McLaren and Lando Norris ahead after Zandvoort dominance
Lando Norris and McLaren’s race at Zandvoort expressed the sheer dominance the Woking-based outfit was capable of. Around a downforce-oriented track, the team were once again capable of winning and winning big.
This bodes well going into the remaining rounds of 2024. The upcoming rounds feature plenty of downforce-laden tracks, including Qatar, where McLaren amassed a whopping 47 points in 2023. Among these rounds are Singapore, Austin, and Brazil, where McLaren secured podiums last year.
This was a strong run of form in a run of races dominated by Verstappen. With McLaren proving even more dominant heading into the latter stages, Norris could even kick off a late charge for the title.
Furthermore, with McLaren able to efficiently solve their weaknesses, their dominance could even filter onto high-speed tracks such as Monza and Azerbaijan.
The only Achilles heel for the team is their cars getting stuck in traffic behind another car. A fine example of this was Piastri’s final stint of the race behind the slower Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. On this tight and twisty circuit, the Australian found no way to get past the Ferrari.
Additionally, Norris must hone his race starts, to avoid finding himself in traffic during the race. While the circuit played into McLaren’s strengths, this may not always be the case on every circuit.
While this was a peerless showing from Norris and McLaren, the Briton will know he will have to continue working hard. He will have to continue pushing if he wants to overcome the staggering 70-point deficit to Verstappen standing between himself and a maiden world championship.
