Alex Albon reveals the true F1 battle with doubts over Lando Norris title potential

Alex Albon is looking to McLaren to bring the F1 2024 title fight to Red Bull, expressing major doubts over Lando Norris ending the Max Verstappen era.

The early rounds of F1 2024 suggested that another stroll to a title double was on the cards for Verstappen and Red Bull, but that theory went out the window with the rise of McLaren and Mercedes to race-winning ways, as Red Bull’s dominance faded.

Alex Albon struggling to believe Lando Norris beats Max Verstappen

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Mercedes has exploded back onto the F1 victory scene by winning three of the last four races heading into the summer break, but it is two-time race winners in F1 2024 McLaren that is providing the most alarming threat to Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship, having reduced their lead to just 42 points.

McLaren driver Norris meanwhile has emerged as the closest threat to Verstappen, who is chasing his fourth successive World Championship. However, Verstappen’s former Red Bull team-mate Albon is not convinced that Norris can become World Champion in F1 2024.

Verstappen’s lead over Norris is 78 points with 10 rounds of the season remaining.

“I don’t know how much I believe Lando can take it off Max,” Albon told RacingNews365 .

McLaren, however, are a different story, with Albon believing the team has a more realistic shot of dethroning Constructors’ Champions Red Bull.

“I look at it more like a Constructors’ Championship battle than a Drivers’ Championship battle,” Albon continued. “I think that what’s great to see is just purely there’s a fight.

“There’s a proper fight up at the top of every race, it seems to be some kind of thing going on.”

Albon also noted an experience factor when it comes to Norris, pointing out that battling for a championship is a totally new experience for the Brit, while Verstappen has been there and done that three times already.

“Max has been in his position, many a times,” Albon stated. “For Lando, it’s more new for him.”

Learn more about McLaren’s F1 title hopeful Lando Norris

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Nonetheless, Verstappen is more than aware of the threat now posed by McLaren and urged his Red Bull team to “fight back” in part two of F1 2024, starting from his home race, the Dutch Grand Prix.

Verstappen told media including PlanetF1.com: “I think if you look at the last five, six races, they for sure have been the best. Quite clear.

“That’s fine. Fair play to them. I think they have done a great job.

“From our side, we have a bit of work to do, a few things also to analyse over the break. From race one all the way to here, what we have done.

“And then try to fight back from Zandvoort, see if we can actually improve the situation, try to turn it around, try to be more competitive.

“I think the battle is in a way still quite tight, so when you make small mistakes it definitely can swing quite quickly.

“We have to try to use that to our advantage as well, because it’s so difficult at the moment, but we’ll see.

“There are so many races left and so many things that can happen.

“You can have the best possible preparation into every single weekend, but even then things can catch you by surprise. So you just have to remain focused, calm and try to improve.”

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