🔗 Share this article

Despite all hype surrounding the Sin City Grand Prix, Lando Norris is keeping a calm demeanor about his chances of securing his maiden drivers' championship.

Norris currently holds a 24-point advantage over teammate Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by 49 points, with just up to 83 points available across the final three events. But, after staging a remarkable comeback from a significant deficit Piastri following the Zandvoort race in August, Norris is concentrating on executing with the clinical precision that lifted him to the lead of the championship.

"It can quickly turn the opposite way once more even though I don't want it to," he commented. "That's motorsport, you know. You can also have luck. Other times you end up unfortunate. Whatever it may be. There's really not worth becoming overjoyed or thinking about it. I still view it as a goal that's quite far away."

Norris has discovered his peak performance at a crucial juncture—having struggled with the car in the opening half of the season—at the same time that Piastri has shed the disciplined, nearly perfect composure that previously made him seem to be a future title winner. Importantly, Norris kept a remarkable level of equanimity throughout, asserting even in the face of setbacks—like his withdrawal from the Dutch GP—that he would adhere to his strategy and work each session with the identical unwavering attention to detail. This approach has yielded results.

All the while, the team have gone to no little effort to attempt to maintain a level playing field for their pair of racers, and it has on occasion been something of torturous process, most notably at the Italian Grand Prix when the squad instructed Piastri to surrender the runner-up spot to Norris after he had fallen behind due to a slow pit stop. Some fans did not take well to what was considered McLaren needlessly interfering with their drivers.

Norris has claimed victory in the last two races, in Mexico City and São Paulo, and was booed on the podium at both, leaving him unfazed. "When you're on top, a lot of people try to bring you down. They do not want to see you succeeding. I see it as a positive sign," he remarked.

"It amuses me. While standing on the podium in Brazil, I really enjoyed it. It was very enjoyable. You finally feel like you're doing something right.

"I don't mind, provided that I win. As long as I believe I'm doing it the correct way, and I think that's the case, so long as I am confident I'm putting effort into remaining true to myself and those kinds of things, then I'm not too fussed about the rest of it."

Las Vegas, on the other hand, must be mastered, and it is not a track suited to the McLaren. It shares characteristics with Canada and Azerbaijan: minimal aerodynamic grip, cool temperatures, and slippery surfaces. They are the only two tracks in the current championship where McLaren have failed to claim at least one podium place, and Norris was circumspect again about their prospects this weekend. Yet, his task in the short term is straightforward: end the race in front of his teammate and the championship tally he requires will follow.

Friday Running Shows Varied Outcomes for Title Rivals

The Ferrari driver topped the leaderboard in FP1 on what was remained a sandy and extremely low-grip surface. Alex Albon was second, with Verstappen fourth, the McLaren ace in P6, and the Australian eighth. During the more representative evening session of FP2, Norris was fastest from the Silver Arrows of the Italian rookie, with his teammate down in fourteenth; though, the session was interrupted for nearly the final 20 minutes of track time to check a reported loose drain cover at the penultimate corner.

This problem is taken seriously on a temporary track where, at the first Las Vegas GP held in 2023, a loose drain cover smashed into the Ferrari, severely harming it and causing the session to be aborted.

Mercedes Announce Stake Transaction

Mercedes have revealed that their team principal Toto Wolff has divested a 15% stake in his investment firm, representing a five percent ownership in the squad, to US tycoon the cybersecurity magnate. Kurtz is the chief executive and creator of the digital protection firm CrowdStrike. The team principal will remain as boss and may receive as much as £230m from the sale, with Mercedes having been valued at £4.57bn, a record for an F1 team.