Revealed: The one key asset Lando Norris lacked in feisty Max Verstappen battle

Lando Norris has become one of the surprise race win contenders as this F1 2024 has developed, using his McLaren to whittle down Max Verstappen’s dominant lead. He just lacks one thing: a cool head.

A slow pit stop for Max Verstappen put Lando Norris in place to steal a stunning win from the Red Bull driver in the closing laps of the Austrian Grand Prix. But a series of fumbles on Norris’ end left him looking vulnerable himself as he slowed to a DNF. A little patience from his side, and the whole fiasco could have been avoided.

Lando Norris’ painful Austrian Grand Prix

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

With 15 laps remaining in the Austrian Grand Prix, both Lando Norris and Max Verstappen pitted for fresh tires. Verstappen’s stop was slow, likely out of an abundance of caution, as earlier in the race, the two nearly collided in the pits.

The move put Norris right on Verstappen’s tail coming out of the pits, whittling down a seven-second gap to almost nothing.

Then, when Verstappen suffered a lock-up, Norris closed into DRS range. On lap 55, Norris made his first attempt at passing on the outside in Turn 3. Norris argued that Verstappen “saw me and then moved,” requesting the Dutch racer be penalized.

Three laps later, Norris tried again.

On his third attempt, Norris left the track and had to give back his position, resulting in a track limits violation penalty.

On lap 63, Norris moved inside Verstappen, who ran off the track.

Then, as Norris tried to pass again, he made contact with Verstappen; Verstappen’s rear left tire exploded instantly, and Norris also suffered contact that forced him into the pit lane, where he ultimately retired.

More on Lando Norris’s 2024 season

👉 Lando Norris addresses ‘the crap’ for ‘being in a good car and not winning a race’

👉 Lando Norris ‘too obsessed’ with Max Verstappen and ‘line in sand’ now drawn

His ‘amateur’ sprint race sowed the first seeds

Perhaps Lando Norris’ frustration was compounded by what he considered to be an “amateur” move during Saturday’s sprint race that left him daydreaming of a snappy comeback for the Grand Prix itself.

On Lap 5, Norris made a deep lunge into Turn 3, a move that netted him the lead… for a moment. Verstappen was able to squeeze through the gap coming into Turn 4, while Norris’ McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri slipped in behind Verstappen.

In the abbreviated race format, Norris was unable to recover. He finished the sprint race in third.

In the post-sprint interviews, Norris admitted that he “messed it up and left the door open like an amateur.”

Despite that, Norris was adamant that he’d perform better on Sunday, when he’d start beside Verstappen on the front row.

“I’ll do a better job than I did this morning, that’s for sure,” he promised.

Unfortunately, frustration got the better of the McLaren driver the moment victory came into his sights. Rather than hold out for one decisive move that could guarantee a pass, Norris attempted to push past Verstappen at even the faintest of opportunities.

In doing so, Norris mounted several failed passing attempts, and grew increasingly frustrated by Verstappen’s defenses — radioing his team to vent his frustrations and demand penalties.

As he called into his team, Norris also began to run wide, thus bringing track limits concerns into play. The resulting five-second penalty meant that, had Norris made the pass stick, he would have had to push extremely hard to build a gap to Verstappen that would not have been reversed at the end of the race.

After the race, Norris told assembled media, including PlanetF1.com, about his perspective on the affair.

“I expect a tough battle against Max. I know what to expect — aggression and pushing the limits, that kind of thing,” Norris said.

“But all three times, he’s doing stuff which can easily cause an incident. And in a way, it’s a bit reckless.

“It seems a little bit desperate from his side. He doesn’t need to be; he’s got plenty of wins.”

But that ignores the fact that Lando Norris’ own moves could also be seen as reckless; he made several attempts at passing that were unlikely to work out in his favor.

And Norris also ignores that his moves were quite desperate. Rather than line up a decisive move guaranteed to stick, he launched into multiple attempts at passes that likely would have required a mistake from Verstappen to actually make stick.

Norris maintains that he knows the kind of competitor that Max Verstappen is. That means he should have been well aware of the moves required to make a pass for a lead.

Instead, each attempt at a pass grew more and more flustered, until the two drivers ultimately made contact.

Lando Norris is an exceptional racer who has proved himself more than capable of leading the revitalized McLaren effort. He is the only driver who has proven himself capable of mounting challenges against Red Bull week after week.

But if he wants to become a regular race winner in his own right, he’ll need to work on clearing his head when the battle hots up. Otherwise, he’ll be left struggling to turn his second-places successes into the victories he so obviously craves.

Read next: Austrian GP: Max Verstappen and Lando Norris tempers flare with Russell gifted the win