Ex-F1 champion declares McLaren to be at “fault” if Lando Norris loses 2024 F1 championship to Max Verstappen
Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve made it clear that Lando Norris should not be blamed if he loses the 2024 title to Max Verstappen.
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Andrea Stella, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)
Lando Norris has emerged as the only real challenger to Max Verstappen for the 2024 world title. The British driver has finally managed to perform consistently this year and has a shot at defeating Verstappen. However, former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve reckons that if Norris fails to win the title, it would be the fault of his team.
Villeneuve asserted that Lando Norris was aware that McLaren was hesitating to make tough calls in its fight against Red Bull this year. The Woking-based squad waited till the Azerbaijan GP to give Norris number 1 status for this campaign.
McLaren is not making the tough decisions that it should
Jacques Villeneuve told Marca
Subsequently, the Canadian insisted that if Max Verstappen managed to stay clear of Norris and win the championship, it would not be Norris’ fault, but his team would be to blame. Moreover, Jacques Villeneuve claimed that McLaren had made a mess this year and it is now too late to make amends.
If Lando is not champion it will be McLaren’s fault, not his. McLaren have made a mess of things and it’s too late now.
Jacques Villeneuve stated
Jacques Villeneuve claims McLaren showed ‘weakness’ in managing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
McLaren allowed Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri to race each other for the majority of the season as per the ‘Papaya rules.’ Although the team did backtrack this stance, Villeneuve believes that the Woking-based squad showed weakness by not giving Lando Norris priority earlier this season. The Canadian pointed out that perhaps a clause in Piastri’s contract could be the cause of this delay.
They [McLaren] have shown real weakness by not giving priority to Norris over Piastri, but we don’t know what Oscar’s contract says.
Jacques Villeneuve noted
Certainly, Lando Norris has six races to outscore Max Verstappen and claim his maiden F1 title this season. The Briton trails behind by 52 points. As such, fans can expect to see Norris pushing himself to the limit at every race in an effort to finally end Verstappen’s dominance in Formula 1.
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Armaan Agarwal
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