Martin Brundle believes Lando Norris will learn from this year that there is “a whole new set of challenges and rules” when fighting for a Formula 1 title after his quest for a maiden crown against Max Verstappen suffered a crushing blow in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
From appearing poised to take a game-changing chunk out of what stood as a 44-point deficit to his Red Bull rival ahead of the rain-hit Interlagos race, Norris ended up dropping 62 points behind with only 86 left to play for after finishing sixth from pole position while Verstappen brilliantly won from 17th on the grid.
Verstappen will win his fourth successive title at the next race in Las Vegas on November 24, live on Sky Sports F1unless the McLaren driver outscores him by three points or more.
Polesitter Norris lost the lead at the start on Sunday to Mercedes’ George Russell – the sixth time in seventh attempts this year he has failed to retain the first-lap lead from the head of the grid – before then losing ground by pitting for tyres just before the red flag was thrown and then making mistakes at two subsequent restarts.
“It’s (about improving) everything at the level he’s at,” Brundle told Sky Sports News when asked if better starts were one clear area for focus for Norris heading towards 2025.
“He’s had some amazing victories and not least in Zandvoort and Singapore where he just ran off and hid, a little bit like Max (on Sunday).
“But he lacks the experience of challenging for a world championship and I think that’s a whole new set of challenges and rules – and that’s what he will learn from this year.
“Sometimes you wonder if he lacks the killer instinct up against Max, who we know can be pretty brutal in combat.
“But I think Lando will learn a lot from this season, and Max winning seven of the first 10 races pretty much put him out of reach really. “
Indeed, with the McLaren driver having been as far back on Verstappen as 84 points a little earlier in the season, Brundle added: “If you add all that up together, Lando needed to take a chunk of points out of Max every single race and hope that there was his team-mate and a Ferrari or two, and even a Mercedes or two, between them.
“But one turnaround, like in Brazil, and that little escapade was over by and large unless a lot of bizarre things happen now in the final races.”
Norris had gained three instead of two points on Verstappen in the Saturday Sprint after team-mate Oscar Piastri had ceded the win of the short-form race to the title-chasing Briton.
Questions as to whether McLaren should have more clearly prioritised Norris earlier in the campaign, when Piastri took wins in Hungary and Italy, have lingered since but Brundle believes the Woking team have handled the situation well on their return to front-running contention with a pair of highly-prized drivers.
“Lando was very clear – ‘I don’t want to win a world championship because my team-mate had to keep gifting me stuff here and there’ – and McLaren know they can’t just park a great talent like Oscar Piastri as second in the team and having to yield at every opportunity because it’s really hard psychologically to get over that and keep your credibility and reputation intact,” he said.
“McLaren have learned a bit this year as well being front-runners for the first time in a very, very long time but they certainly haven’t hampered Lando.
“They have given Lando every bit of support that he needed and the car that has been very fast.”
‘Verstappen was in a class of one’
While acknowledging his own errors in the race, Norris said afterwards that McLaren had also simply been “unlucky” that their decision to pit for fresh tyres in the rain, along with then-race leader Russell, had been almost immediately undone by the appearance of the red flag for Franco Colapinto’s crash under the Safety Car.
When a race is suspended, all drivers can make a ‘free’ tyre change ahead of the restart, cancelling out any tyre-life advantages. The three cars who finished on the podium – Verstappen and the two Alpines – stayed out on track in the laps before the race suspension and gained track position they did not subsequently cede when the race resumed.
Verstappen ended up winning by 19 seconds. Norris said while his friend and rival “drove well” he still “got a bit lucky”.
Asked if Norris might revise his view about Verstappen being lucky after re-watching the race, Brundle said: “I think he will because Max was in a class of one. Those conditions suit his talent level.
“The McLaren wasn’t the fastest car in the rain, which was a bit surprising because they looked so good in qualifying in wet conditions.
“Max got unlucky with the red flag in qualifying but he stayed out on track in the race and expected a Safety Car or a red-flag situation.
“So he knew what to do and then he just steamed off and won by 19 seconds at a canter really, it was a classic drive.
“Formula 1 did really well to get the race underway and finished, actually.”
Formula 1 returns after a three-week break with the Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 22-24, live on Sky Sports F1. Get Sky Sports F1 to watch every race and more live
