Ralf Schumacher claims Lando Norris ‘not ready’ to be F1 champion

Lando Norris trails Max Verstappen by 84 points in the world championship standings.

Ralf Schumacher claims Lando Norris ‘not ready’ to be F1 champion

Ralf Schumacher and Lando Norris (Via: Imago)

Red Bull began the 2024 season with an unprecedented advantage over its rivals. On the contrary, as the season progressed, teams have started catching up to them, which has made McLaren‘s Lando Norris an emerging championship contender. Despite his stellar form, the Brit has botched multiple wins. This has urged the Ex-F1 driver, Ralf Schumacher to claim that Norris is not ready to be a world champion just yet.

Lando Norris won his maiden Grand Prix at Miami after McLaren bought a huge upgrade package. In the subsequent rounds, he emerged as the closest rival to Max Verstappen and charged down his Red Bull rival. However, over the last two races, the Brit has conceded points to the reigning champion as he has made various strategic blunders.

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Witnessing Norris’ botched chances of winning in the past few rounds, Ralf Schumacher asserted that the Englishman is not up to that level of becoming a world champion.

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As a driver, you usually go into the race and you already know exactly what a tyre is capable of. The team knows that too. You have to give each other information. What happened? Someone drove into the pits earlier and does this and that with the tyres. And then as a driver, you can make the decision. Norris is not quite ready yet. But that could also be due to the structure within the team. 
Ralf Schumacher said in an interview as quoted by RacingNews365

The German explained that every driver knows going into a race weekend about tire performance. However, with the miscommunication between the team and the driver regarding crucial strategic decisions, the driver has to take charge and make bold decisions. Thus, this differentiates the 24-year-old from other drivers poised to be a world champion.

Lando Norris hopes to win his home race next year

The McLaren driver seemed dejected after bottling the win at his home race. To further rub salt in his wounds, he would have come out ahead of Lewis Hamilton out of the pits if he had not overrun his marks.

Lando Norris
Lando Norris (via IMAGO)

Accepting his mistakes, the former race winner looked over to the positives and reckoned for a better home race next year.

I think we still did so many things right, so many positives. Especially here in Silverstone, the one place I would love for everything to go perfectly, it didn’t today. But I’m good, we’ll come back stronger next year and try again.
Lando Norris via F1

Norris appreciated the team for perfectly executing multiple things. Observing their progress, he envisioned a better race next year and to finally take his maiden win on home soil.

Despite his struggles in the past few races, the McLaren driver is understood to be in the mix in the following two rounds in Hungary and Belgium. Thus, Norris could reduce his deficit in upcoming races before heading into the summer break and prove Schumacher wrong.

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