{"id":25947,"date":"2024-10-29T06:23:42","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T10:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=25947"},"modified":"2024-10-29T06:31:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T10:31:50","slug":"norris-could-have-fought-for-victory-without-verstappen-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/29\/norris-could-have-fought-for-victory-without-verstappen-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"Norris “could have fought for victory” without Verstappen incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris could have fought for the race win in Mexico, argues McLaren team principal Andrea Stella<\/a>. From Stella’s perspective, the early-race battle between Norris and Verstappen cost the British driver a chance to challenge Carlos Sainz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McLaren miss out at Mexico GP<\/h2>\n

In many ways, the Mexico GP was a frustrating event for the Woking-based outfit. Ferrari took yet another victory, overtaking Red Bull in the standings and putting themselves within touching distance of McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ferrari’s SF-24 has become the new benchmark since Austin, with the Scuderia’s Monza upgrades proving very effective at more traditional circuits.<\/p>\n

This is especially significant because, over the coming weeks, Ferrari will prepare another set of updates to end the season.<\/p>\n

McLaren’s advantage has been eroded, and their main challengers are now a team who – unlike Red Bull<\/a> – have two drivers capable of winning races and taking regular podiums.<\/p>\n

Because of this, any dropped points are hugely costly for McLaren.<\/p>\n

Stella: Verstappen incident compromised Lando Norris<\/h2>\n

Andrea Stella recognised this, giving his analysis after the chequered flag in Mexico:<\/p>\n

“You go racing fair and square. This is what we want from Lando,” he told the media, per The Times<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“This is what Lando wants from himself. <\/em>When I look at the incidents in the early laps of the race, there is a bit of disappointment.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Because without those couple of incidents, Lando could have fought for the victory.”<\/em><\/p>\n

To some extent, McLaren can be pleased about Norris closing the gap to Verstappen in the drivers’ Championship.<\/p>\n

The British driver gained 10 points on the Dutchman, reducing the deficit to just 42 points. With four races and two sprints remaining, there is still time for Norris<\/a> to bridge the gap.<\/p>\n

However, in order to have a realistic chance heading into Abu Dhabi, the McLaren driver needs to start winning races.<\/p>\n

Achieving this will require improvements from all departments at Woking, who no longer have any margin for error.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris could have fought for the race win in Mexico, argues McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. From Stella’s perspective, the early-race battle between Norris and Verstappen cost the British driver a chance to challenge Carlos Sainz. McLaren miss out at Mexico GP In many ways, the Mexico GP was a frustrating event for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":25952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,68,23,66,78],"class_list":["post-25947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-mclaren","tag-red-bull-racing"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}