Nico Hulkenberg thinks Lando Norris not in ‘title fight yet’ despite ‘fastest car’ verdict

Despite all the talk of McLaren team orders, Nico Hulkenberg says Lando Norris is “not yet” in the title fight given Max Verstappen’s 62-point lead.

Red Bull have struggled for form in recent races as the balance issues that plagued Sergio Perez since early in the season caught up with Verstappen.

Nico Hulkenberg says it is ‘not yet’ a title fight

It culminated in the team’s worst two-car performance of the campaign last time out at Monza where Verstappen was 38 seconds down on race winner Charles Leclerc as he brought his RB20 home in sixth place, Perez was P8.

McLaren was therefore able to land a telling blow in the Constructors’ Championship with their two-car podium outscoring Red Bull by 34 points to 12 to narrow that gap to eight points in Red Bull’s favour.

But while Norris, third on the day, outscored Verstappen by eight points, he’s only reduced Verstappen’s lead by seven points since the Red Bull driver last won a Grand Prix seven races back in Spain. His chances of taking yet more points out of the Verstappen in Azerbaijan were dealt a huge blow in qualifying when he finished down in 17th place having been caught out by flags late in Q1.

It has Hulkenberg claiming this is “not yet” a title fight.

“Obviously, I should say McLaren has managed kind of to turn things around,” he said in Baku. “They’re the fastest car on the grid right now. The ones to beat.

“But Max is in quite a comfortable lead still points-wise, so it’s not really I think the title fight yet.”

F1 2024: Max Verstappen v Lando Norris

👉 The ultimate F1 2024 title calculator: How Lando Norris could beat Max Verstappen

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ standings after the Italian Grand Prix

Nico Hulkenberg hush on ‘chilled’ and ‘private’ chats

Not for the first time, Hulkenberg flew to a Grand Prix weekend with Norris and Verstappen, the latter taking to Instagram to post a photo of the three of them.

It begs the question do the potential title rivals talk about their championship battle?

“We talk,” Hulkenberg said with a laugh. “We don’t sit there for hours in silence. We talk about everything, but it’s chilled, it’s private.

“I think you see they have a good relationship, they get on.

“It just obviously makes sense, we all come from the same spot so it’s convenient, and we can combine forces when it comes to travel and these kind of things.”

Even Lando Norris admits F1 2024 title ‘not easy’

Hulkenberg, though, isn’t the only one who believes Verstappen’s 62-point lead will be difficult to reel in. Norris said the same in the build-up to the weekend when quizzed on Verstappen claiming the titles are “not realistic” for Red Bull as he suffers his longest winless streak since 2020.

Norris replied: “That is just Max saying what he wants. He is still leading by 60-odd points.

“I have eight races to catch 60-something points and it is not easy to do that even if I win every race, it’s still not an easy thing to achieve. He is the one in a better position. I would rather be in his position than my position.

“At any point as soon as Red Bull can figure out where they’ve gone wrong and what they struggled with. They’re a team I expect, within a few races to be fixing their problems and coming back strong again.

“So that might be his feeling after one bad race. And I would say it’s only one bad race, it’s not like they’ve been that far off at every race this year.

“That was probably their worst race, but Max has still been not far off pole in many races, he’s still been close to winning many races, so it’s still easily possible for him.

“I think he just says it to make himself probably feel a little bit better. Yeah, he’s still in a much stronger position than I am.”

Read next: Sergio Perez’s ‘psychological’ response revealed as Max Verstappen issues set in