🔗 Share this article

Amid the hype around the Sin City Grand Prix, McLaren's lead driver is maintaining a calm demeanor about his chances of securing his first world title.

The British driver currently has a two-dozen point advantage over teammate Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with only a maximum of eighty-three points up for grabs across the remaining trio of events. But, after staging a extraordinary recovery from 34 points behind Piastri following the Zandvoort race in the summer, Norris is focused on performing with the methodical approach that propelled him to the lead of the championship.

"It can easily go in the other direction once more as much as I don't want it to," he commented. "That's motorsport, you know. You can also have luck. Other times you also be unfortunate. Whatever it may be. There's really no point getting excited or dwelling on it. I continue to view it as something that remains far away."

The 26-year-old has found his peak performance at a critical juncture—having struggled with the vehicle in the first part of the season—at the same time that Piastri has lost the disciplined, almost perfect ease that previously made him appear to be a future title winner. Importantly, Norris kept a remarkable level of equanimity all along, insisting despite challenges—like his withdrawal from the Zandvoort race—that he would adhere to his gameplan and approach each session with the identical relentless attention to detail. This approach has yielded results.

Meanwhile, the team have gone to no little effort to try to maintain a fair competition for their pair of racers, and it has on occasion been a rather torturous experience, most notably at Monza when the squad instructed the Australian to cede the runner-up spot to Norris following he had fallen behind due to a delayed tire change. Certain spectators were unhappy with what was seen as McLaren unnecessarily interfering with their drivers.

The championship leader has won the last two grands prix, in Mexico City and Brazil, and was booed on the winner's rostrum at both, leaving him unfazed. "Once you are on top, a lot of people want to bring you down. They don't want to see you winning. I consider it a good thing," he said.

"It makes me laugh. When I was on the winner's stage in Brazil, I really loved it. It was quite satisfying. You finally feel like you're doing something right.

"I don't mind, as long as I come out on top. As long as I believe I'm doing it the right manner, which I feel like that's the case, so long as I feel like I'm putting hard work into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I am not concerned with the rest of it."

Vegas, meanwhile, needs to be mastered, and it is not a track ideal for the McLaren. It shares similarities with Canada and Baku: minimal aerodynamic grip, chilly conditions, and slippery surfaces. They are the only two circuits this season where McLaren have failed to claim a single top-three finish, and the leader was cautious once more about their prospects in Nevada. Yet, his task in the short term is straightforward: end the race in front of Piastri and the points he requires will come.

Practice Sees Mixed Results for Championship Rivals

The Ferrari driver topped the leaderboard in first practice on what was still a sandy and very low-grip track. Alex Albon was second, with Verstappen in fourth, the McLaren ace sixth, and Piastri eighth. In the more representative night running of second practice, the Briton was quickest from the Silver Arrows of Kimi Antonelli, with his teammate down in fourteenth; however, the practice was interrupted for almost all of the final 20 minutes of track time to inspect a reported loose drain cover at the penultimate corner.

This problem is taken seriously on a street circuit where, at the inaugural Nevada GP held in 2023, a loose manhole struck the Ferrari, severely damaging it and causing the session to be aborted.

Mercedes Announce Stake Transaction

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their team principal the Austrian executive has sold a 15% stake in his investment firm, equating to a five percent ownership in the team, to US tycoon George Kurtz. Kurtz is the chief executive and creator of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. Wolff will stay on as team principal and may receive as much as £230m from the deal, with Mercedes having been valued at £4.57 billion, a record for an F1 team.