Max Verstappen told to 'start doing comedy' by F1 title rival as he refutes his bold championship claim
Max Verstappen has been told to start doing comedy by Lando Norris, his title rival. This refuted the Dutch driver's bold claim that he would have won the title sooner in a McLaren. The 2024 F1 season has had some very interesting dynamics because it began with Red Bull being in a very dominant position.
The team swept all but one race until the circus reached Miami, and even that race was where Verstappen had suffered a DNF. At Miami, McLaren introduced its major upgrade package, and that flipped the season on its head. All of a sudden the Woking-based squad was right on the level of Red Bull in terms of performance.
What followed was a pattern where the McLaren continued to get progressively stronger while Red Bull continued to get weaker. Verstappen managed his championship lead for the rest of the season and was able to clinch the title in Las Vegas.
With a title won more on consistency than just raw pace, the Red Bull driver was questioned if he could have won the season in a McLaren, to which Max Verstappen replied in the affirmative. The driver made a bold claim that he would have won the title sooner in either Lando Norris's or Charles Leclerc's car.
The claim was put forward to Lando Norris on Thursday in front of the media, to which the British driver said that Max Verstappen needs to start doing comedy. He told the media, including Sportskeeda:
"He should start doing comedy or something. He can say whatever he wants. Of course, I completely disagree, as I would. He’s good, but yeah, it’s not true.”
The driver was also questioned about Max Verstappen having a more pliable teammate in Sergio Perez and whether that was an advantage or a weakness. Lando Norris felt that there were both pros and cons to this. Talking about the cons, he said,
“No. I mean, there’s pros and cons. There’s pros of having… Like he has to do all of his work on his own, which is, hats off to him, you know, he doesn’t have someone who’s pushing him. He doesn’t have someone who’s trying other things with the car, and you can’t do a to b tests and things like that, because the data’s not as valuable when you don’t have someone who’s performing at the same level."
He added:
“So there’s a lot of things that Max can do that are phenomenal. Driving at the level he does consistently without a team-mate that can push him in any way, certainly makes his life harder from that perspective, also from team perspective."
Lando Norris on the benefits of Max Verstappen having a pliant teammate
Lando Norris further expanded on what he felt were the benefits of having a pliant teammate and said one of the key advantages was that there was no pressure. The entire team is working for him and he doesn't have to worry about his teammate beating him. He said:
“But at the same time, yeah, there’s no pressure. He [Max Verstappen] doesn’t have to deal with trying to beat anyone in his own team. That comes with some comfort. But they go together."
He added:
"Sometimes, in some ways, I like having a bit of pressure, because it makes me do a slightly better job. I’m sure he’s going to say he doesn’t care whoever his team-mate is, you know, he’s not going to mind, but there’s pros and cons of having a strong team-mate, and I hope at some point he has one and I can challenge him a bit more.”
Whether Max Verstappen could be a world champion in McLaren is an intriguing question. The fact, however, that the driver had the self-confidence to claim such a thing does set him apart.