F1 News
Schumacher critical of Norris: 'He reminds me of Leclerc'
- Ludo van Denderen
After an excellent start and a tight race, Lando Norris finished second in Brazil for the sixth time in the 2023 season. So once again no victory for the McLaren driver. And for the fifth time, it had been Max Verstappen who had beaten the Briton. Although Norris was declared 'Driver of the Day' by the fans at Interlagos, analyst and former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher is critical of the McLaren star.
Indeed, Schumacher had also seen that Norris - like, for example, a week earlier in Mexico - was not good enough in qualifying. As a result, the Brit immediately started the Grand Prix behind. Especially with Verstappen on the front row, it became a hell of a job to challenge the champion.
'Norris wants too much in qualifying'
In his column on the German version of Sky Sports, Schumacher stated, "Lando Norris has become chaser number one. But he still makes too many mistakes, especially in qualifying. Norris reminds me a bit of Charles Leclerc. However, Norris does an excellent job in the race. Norris' problem is that he wants too much in qualifying. Then he wants too much and makes too many mistakes," said the German.
Verstappen does not (usually) make such mistakes. The three-time world champion took his 17th win of the season in Sao Paulo and once again proved unapproachable. Unlike Norris, Michael Schumacher's brother was full of praise for Red Bull Racing's Dutchman.
"Max Verstappen races from victory to victory continues to make history and simply makes no mistakes in Brazil. However, I am not in favour of always drawing comparisons with my brother or Ayrton Senna. They were exceptional in their time. So is Verstappen now. It is incredible how he is doing. If you compare his performance to his teammate Sergio Perez, again there was a big difference in the race," Schumacher said.