Norris ‘relaxed’ before maiden title bid in Qatar

Lando Norris claims he is “relaxed” ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, which could be his first race as world champion.

By 24 points, Max Verstappen leads teammate Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen at Red Bull.

If the Briton can surpass both of his rivals over the course of the weekend in Doha, he will win.

When I’m 24 points ahead, Norris said, “I feel just as relaxed as I did when I was 35 points behind the lead.” That is my current strength.

Verstappen has a formidable fightback against the Dutch Grand Prix, which was followed by Italy, by 104 points.

Norris remarked, “My current state feels the same as it did before Mexico when I wasn’t in charge.” When Max still had a good time in the car, Austin still felt better, but Max still won the race.

“I really don’t feel any different in the car now that I’m leading.”

Since Zandvoort, which ended in August, Piastri has not won a race. Verstappen has won four and Norris has won two since then.

After it was determined that the skid blocks on their cars had worn too much, both McLaren drivers were hit by being exempt from the Las Vegas Grand Prix last weekend.

Without that, Norris would have been entering Qatar with a 30-point lead over Piastri, but the 26-year-old said it was not difficult to get over the disappointment of losing second place in Vegas.

He said, “Of course, it hurts.” Every weekend, everyone puts a lot of effort into it, including myself. All of that work just seemed to vanish very quickly.

“But we all share the same sentiment,” he continued. What we had as a result leaves everyone in McLaren, including the mechanics, the engineers, and myself. And we’re all disappointed.

“But actually, I just had a few days off and came to this weekend and found it quite simple.” Yes, I’m disappointed, of course. But otherwise, I was fine.

The team, according to Norris, will make an effort to treat this race the same way everyone else does.

He said, “We treat it very normally.” Because we’ve been doing a good job and I’m very pleased with the work we’ve all been doing, there’s no need to try to treat it any differently.

Piastri acknowledged that he would require fortune in order for the gap to close.

He continued, “There is still a chance,” and it has already been played out that way a few times. Therefore, I am aware that it is possible.

It’s obvious that it’s a little bit of an outside shot, but I’m also aware of that. I can’t just rely on that, even if my final two weekends are perfect. I am aware of the fact that I need other things to happen.

“So, I’m just going to try to have the best weekends possible, which I try to do every weekend, and see what happens to everyone else, essentially.

Piastri said he was confident he would be strong in Qatar despite having struggled for pace in a number of recent races.

He responded, “Confident, I would say.” I’ve done well at it in the past, and it’s a circuit I’ve enjoyed.

Even though the race was what it was and there were some mistakes, Vegas was still looking reasonable from a pace standpoint when I had clean air to use my pace when I just qualified for the end of Q3.

“I believe we’ve already seen a lot of improvements in those kinds of low-grip conditions,” he said, “but obviously this circuit is much different, much higher speed, very grippy Tarmac, pretty consistent, maybe some wind around, but at least we’ve found a lot of improvement.” So, yes, we’re optimistic that things will turn out well.