'Verstappen versus Norris was never a real fight'
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- Jeroen Immink
The 2024 Formula 1 season is widely regarded as the first year where Max Verstappen faced genuine competition from his rivals under the current set of regulations. Former IndyCar driver and F1TV pundit James Hinchcliffe believes that despite the efforts of Lando Norris and others, they never truly posed a threat to the dominance of the Red Bull Racing driver.
Max Verstappen dominated the early part of the 2024 Formula 1 season, winning four of the first five races. The turning point came after the Miami Grand Prix, when McLaren and Lando Norris made key improvements to their car, becoming significantly more competitive for the remainder of the year. Despite this, James Hinchcliffe maintains that Verstappen was clearly superior to his rivals throughout the season.
'The battle was never really a thing'
In The Red Flags Podcast, Hinchcliffe looks back in detail at the title fight between Verstappen and Norris. According to Hinchcliffe, it was advertised as a bigger story than it was. "It was never a thing this year. We bigged it up because it was a cool story and Max won with, like, seven races to go last year so we were trying to make it a thing. It was never a thing and that's not all on Lando, he wasn't ready," Hinchcliffe said.
"Lando won four races, Max won nine. In no world should Max have lost the championship to Lando. I think that's what people forget, is that the start of the season is so far away by the time you get to the last quarter. You forget that Max won five out of the first seven races. Everybody then got better, so Lando started being good, and so did Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz George Russell, and Lewis Hamilton got better," the Canadian added.
Hinchcliffe does assume that Norris and McLaren will be ready for both F1 titles by 2025. "I think Lando learned a lot of good lessons and I think he is now ready to genuinely fight for it next year. I think the team's ready and Lando will be too," the Canadian concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Toby Nixon
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