Fights with Verstappen showed where I need to improve

Lando Norris acknowledged he will have to do better when he fights Max Verstappen on-track than he has done this year.

McLaren clinched the constructors’ championship yesterday but Norris lost the drivers’ title fight to the Red Bull driver two rounds earlier.

Norris had never won a grand prix before the season began. He said this year gave him the belief he can fight for the championship in the future.

“I don’t believe in a lot of things but the one thing I’ve learned this year is probably to believe in myself a bit more,” said Norris after winning yesterday’s season finale in Abu Dhabi.

“I’ve certainly not come out on top as often as I would have liked in certain moments as a driver, especially in my fights against Max. As much as it hurts sometimes, I’m probably happy about it now that I’m going to go into next season knowing that I can fight.

“I know myself, and I know more and better than anyone what I need to improve on, where I’m not strong enough, where I’m strong enough. I’m always open for criticism, things like that. But I’m the one who knows better than the others – not in an arrogant way or a selfish way – but I know that I have to improve in a lot of areas and certain things.”

The McLaren driver out-qualified team mate Oscar Piastri for 20 out of 24 grands prix this year. He said his single-lap pace is an area where he has clearly improved.

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“When you look at my qualifying performances, for instance, they’ve been almost twice as good as I was last year, especially comparing to the other guys in exactly the same car,” he said. “So I’ve definitely stepped it up at a good level this season.”

“I remember 12 months ago here I messed up my quali three lap, a lap that I should have done P2 when I had a big slide in [turns] 12 and 13,” he explained. “I was pretty annoyed with myself post-quali and that was what everyone spoke about then.

“But that’s not really happened this year. I’ve closed off my quali laps. I’ve improved in all those areas.”

However, although Norris believes 2024 was “my best season [for] performance, personally” he admitted “probably it wasn’t” good enough. There were too many times when he missed opportunities to take points off the driver who won the championship.

“I obviously lost out on a few things,” said Norris. “There were…