Opportunity knocks again for Lando Norris. He starts the Italian Grand Prix from pole position at the head of a McLaren one-two, with Max Verstappen down in seventh place.
Up in his office on the first floor of the team’s paddock HQ, Norris’s mentor Zak Brown can afford to smile. He has known the British driver since he was ‘2ft 2in and weighed 50kg wet through’. He was a world champion karter back then.
Now 24, Norris has the chance of fighting Verstappen for the greatest prize in motor racing. He stands 70 points adrift of the Dutchman with 258 available across nine grand prix weekends.
A qualifying performance like this one is a powerful help in the endeavour, but it will only be realised to its full potential should Norris lead at the end of the opening lap for the first time in his five poles.
‘He has been a little too courteous,’ Brown tells Mail Sport. ‘He needs to get his elbows out a bit more.’
Lando Norris starts the Italian Grand Prix from pole position after a brilliant qualifying display
His teammate Oscar Piastri completes the front row for a McLaren one-two with Mercedes’ George Russell clinching P3 ahead of Charles Leclerc in the first of the two Ferraris
Zac Brown has revealed what Lando Norris must do to clinch the F1 title
Has Brown offered this paternal advice to Norris in person? ‘I have, but he kind of knows anyway,’ says the American. ‘At Spa, a couple of races ago, he realised he had left too much room at the first corner. When he watched it back on video, he saw he had left way too much room.
‘But his starts are not the big deal some people make out. It’s not as if he gets out there and thinks, “Oh my God, it’s the start”. It’s more the first laps than the starts.’
At least Norris will be able to launch himself without Verstappen all over his back. It is the defending champion with the headaches. He was nearly seven-tenths short of Norris and complained that his Red Bull was ‘shocking’ and had ‘no grip’.
He swore in the cockpit but was sanguine afterwards, as if resigned to the notion his defence is vulnerable to attack. Red Bull are lost for answers right now.
Norris’s mood this weekend has been buoyant, and Brown detects a growing confidence in the way he is driving. He cites the closing chapter of the crushing, 23-second win in Zandvoort last Sunday — Norris’s second career victory, following his first in Miami in May — as evidence of this.
‘Look at his fastest lap and the way he went about it,’ urges Brown, McLaren’s team principal. ‘He asked us a few laps from the end what was going on with the fastest lap.
‘Andrea (Stella, the team principal) told him, “Lewis (Hamilton), on new softs,” which was code for, “Don’t try it.” Next lap we saw green (on the screens, depicting a personal best time). He was sussing it out. And then next lap, more green. Andrea turned to me and said, “Here we go”.
‘To have that confidence in himself and the car in a high-risk situation and not worry about chucking it off is a level of self-belief I have not seen in him before. I like how he went about it. Cool, calm, collected, composed — as if saying, “And there you go!”
Verstappen was nearly seven-tenths short of Norris during a tough qualifying session
‘When you get a win as big as that you are in the right environment. You think you can beat these guys in a serious way.
‘I remember when I got my first go-kart win and then a second — it takes an edge off it. You no longer think, “Can I do it? Is that guy better than me?” You get a bigger expectation of yourself.’
McLaren are the car to beat, and have been for some weeks. Huge credit to Brown, Stella and their boffins for that transformation of the team’s fortunes after a decade and a half off their perch. Progress has taken them to within 30 points of Red Bull and they should reel them in to win their first constructors’ title since 1998.
As for the drivers’ crown? ‘Lando is definitely world champions’ class,’ says Brown, without hesitation. ‘He can go toe-to-toe with Max, with anyone.
McLaren boss Brown says he detects a growing confidence in the way Norris is driving
McLaren appear to be the team to beat since coming back from the summer break
‘But can we get back the 70-point lead Max built up brilliantly early on? We are going to need a few things falling our way. Max is carrying that car, but we need three DNFs his side and none ours.’
Or perhaps they won’t require anything so drastic. For between Lando and Max in qualifying came both Mercedes (George Russell third and Lewis Hamilton sixth) and the two Ferraris (Charles Leclerc fourth and Carlos Sainz fifth).
‘If we were starting the championship now, or awarding a second-half-of-the-season title, Lando would win it. As for over the whole season . . . we are keeping grounded.’