Norris warns Verstappen threat is real after Red Bull resurgence

• Verstappen’s back-to-back wins close gap to Piastri and Norris
• Norris says Red Bull upgrades at Monza boosted their pace
• McLaren star admits low-downforce tracks remain a weakness

Lando Norris says Red Bull’s return to form in recent races should not shock anyone, warning that Max Verstappen is once again a major threat in the Formula 1 title race.

After victories in Azerbaijan and Italy, Verstappen has cut his deficit to championship leader Oscar Piastri to 69 points and sits just 44 points behind Norris in second place. The Monza triumph ended an eight-race drought for the Dutchman, during which he had only two podiums.

“It’s not often that they’re slow, you know, so I think people need to stop being so surprised that they’re quick,” Norris said. “Max was winning races already at the beginning of the year, he could have won round one, I think he was pretty close to winning round two in the sprint or something. The whole season they’ve been quick, the Red Bull has been good, they brought some upgrades to Monza which seems to have helped them improve even more. So, not a surprise, I think we know that they’re an incredibly strong team and one of the best drivers ever in Formula 1 so we expect nothing less.”

McLaren have dominated much of the season, with Norris and Piastri fighting for the drivers’ crown, but the Brit admitted the last two races highlighted weaknesses in the car.

“They’re going to make our life difficult I think for the rest of the season but we also know from our side, we struggled a bit here [in Baku], Monza clearly were not quick enough,” Norris said. “We’ve made improvements but things where the Red Bull have been so good and dominant in the past, they still have and we don’t. When I was following the Red Bull [of Yuki Tsunoda], there was clearly some areas where they were just another level to us and we need to understand why.”

Norris said his Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend was compromised by qualifying chaos after Piastri’s Q3 crash and a badly-timed rain shower.

“I think on ultimate pace we were still not bad this weekend [in Baku],” he said. “I was still quick in FP1, FP2, FP3 and so forth. If it had been a normal qualifying… I think the tricky conditions, the little bit of rain, going out first on track, all added up to making it the worst weekend. Our position in the race, I think if I started second, I think I would have finished second. I don’t think we had the pace of Red Bull, honestly. That was very, very clear. I think just the lower downforce tracks, we still seem to struggle. We still don’t have the confidence we need. It can be quick, we’re just not able to repeat it as often as we need to and as often as the Red Bull, for example. We’ve had an amazing season, don’t get me wrong, but we clearly have things that are not good enough and we have to keep working on them.”