Lando Norris said he won’t “beg” for number one status at McLaren, but admitted he would prefer to have it.
On Sunday Norris finished immediately behind team mate Oscar Piastri for the second time in four races. Norris is the closest challenger to Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship, but McLaren have so far refused to instruct Piastri to give up places to his team mate.
Norris insisted Piastri does help him on track, but said “I’m not here just to beg for someone to let me pass.”
“That’s not why I’m here,” Norris continued. “I’m here to race. He drove a better race than me, so I finished third, and that’s where I deserved to finish.”
However Norris admitted he “would love it” if McLaren gave him their full support to cut Verstappen’s points lead. “But it’s not up to me.
“It’s tough, because obviously I think as any driver, you don’t want it. You know you don’t want things to just be played that way. It’s a tough one.”
Norris has eight rounds left to close down Verstappen’s 62-point lead. The maximum score available for a driver between now and the end of the season is 232.
“Obviously, I wouldn’t say we’re running out of time, but time is going away slowly, and I still believe we can do it,” said Norris. “The pace is obviously great. I still believe we’re probably close to, if not the best car again today.”
On Sunday Norris lost the lead from pole position on the first lap, as he has done all seven times he has started there in Formula 1. He said he needs to perform better to avoid losing more points in coming races.
“I think we’re still working together well. We’re still helping one another and I think that showed plenty of times this year that we’re working together very well as a team and we’re performing as the best team out on the grid and we’re very happy with that.
“When you’re fighting for a championship, you want every little thing and I’m doing everything I can. The best way simply is just to win the race. And I didn’t do that because of some silly things.”
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