Lando Norris: Max Verstappen’s F1 dominance ‘not concerning at all’

McLaren driver Lando Norris isn’t ‘concerned’ by Max Verstappen’s dominant start to the 2024 F1 season. 

Verstappen won the opening two rounds of the year in Bahrain with relative ease.

In the season-opener, he finished over 20 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez.

The gap was under 10 seconds in Saudi Arabia before Perez’s time penalty for an unsafe release.

Still, Red Bull took 1-2 finishes in both events, meaning the team have won 23 out of the last 24 races.

However, Norris isn’t worried given that teams behind them have “been able to close the gap”.

“No, I don’t think it was concerning at all honestly. I think yeah considering how much we’ve still have been able to close the gap,” he said.

“Considering you know that they spent a lot of time developing and making a new car for this year, I’m pretty happy with how close we [McLaren] were to Red Bull.

“Even in qualifying you know it wasn’t like he had an easy one and was that convincing. So I’m sure they are still learning about the car, it’s a very different concept they have.

“But yeah it’s one that I think everyone should expect you know they started their development on that car a long time before everyone else so you’re not surprised at all but actually you’re surprised at how close you were and how close a lot of teams were.

“Even when you look at Carlos [Sainz] relative to Sergio [Perez in Bahrain] and if Carlos wasn’t stuck behind Sergio in the middle stint like he was, the gap wouldn’t have been probably even as big. So yeah I think signs of hope for everyone I would say.”

On the other hand, Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas described Red Bull’s form as “a bit concerning”.

“It’s been quite a clean sweep for the last two races for Red Bull and Max, so it’s a bit concerning,” Bottas added.

“Obviously, it doesn’t change our focus and our battles on track but for the whole wide world, it could be a bit like last year. But let’s hope things change during the year.”