‘I’ve not been at level of world champion’ – Norris

Lando Norris says he has “not performed at the level of a world champion” so far this season – but still believes he can challenge Max Verstappen for the title.

The McLaren driver is 78 points behind Red Bull’s Verstappen with 10 races to go as the season resumes at this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, following the summer break.

Norris said: “I’m still very happy with how the season’s gone, but just one too many mistakes and a few too many points given away.

“Which is not the level I need to be at if I want to fight for a championship and fight against a driver like Max.”

Norris and McLaren head into the second part of the season with a realistic chance of overhauling Red Bull’s 42-point lead in the constructors’ championship, but with both Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri motivated to do everything they can to catch Verstappen in the drivers’ chase.

“For the team, of course [we can do it],” Norris said. “As a driver, it is still within reach but it is a lot of points and it’s against Max.

“I want to be optimistic and say there are still chances. I know it’s a lot and it’s going to be a very difficult challenge but, with how I know I can perform when things click, I still want to believe it’s possible.”

But Norris said a series of small errors – particularly at the starts and first laps of races – had let him down.

“In the first half of the season, I have not performed at the level of a world champion,” he said. “Simple as that.

“At times I have. Many races I have. But little things have let me down along the way and those are things I can’t afford. In the last few races I have not been at the level I need to be at.”

Norris’ hopes are boosted at Zandvoort this weekend by an upgrade on the McLaren car – their first performance development since the one introduced in Miami in May, which transformed them into frontrunners.

“We have some things on the car this weekend,” Norris said. “We’ve not really had an upgrade since Miami. And a lot of other teams have done.

“So it’s about time, but in a good sense, we have taken our time to try to understand things well. We have seen other teams put things on the car and they’ve not worked, and we wanted to avoid that.”

Piastri, who is 32 points behind Norris in the championship, says he had been driving with a broken rib for the three races leading up to the summer break in Britain, Hungary and Belgium.

He revealed the injury on Instagram this week, but until Thursday had not said when it happened or how it had affected him.

He said it had been caused by his race seat not being a perfect fit, and that the problem began to emerge at the Spanish Grand Prix five races ago.

“You make the seat at the the start of the year and sometimes you get it a bit wrong and some tracks don’t expose it,” Piastri said.

“But going to Barcelona, Austria, Silverstone, they are three pretty hardcore tracks, so a bit of a pressure point, and eventually my rib broke up. It’s all good now.”

He said he had discovered the extent of the injury after the British Grand Prix.

“The scan was the day after Silverstone but it was definitely broken before Silverstone,” the Australian said.

“Definitely it was some point around Austria. I think it was probably a bit disturbed in Barcelona and then after Austria it was pretty painful, and then Silverstone was a pretty nasty few days.

“But we made some changes and it was already getting better in Hungary and Belgium, so it’s all back to normal now.”

Verstappen starts his 200th grand prix this weekend, and has said he is “beyond halfway” in his career.

The Dutchman is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028 – although there is a possibility he could move to Mercedes from 2026, when new regulations come into force on both car and engine.

On his future, he said: “In my mind at the moment I am not thinking about a new contract.

“I want to see how it goes and see the new regulations, if it’s fun or not. And in 2026 and 2027 there is a lot of time to decide what happens. I keep everything open but I am quite relaxed about it.”

Verstappen has won all three editions of the Dutch Grand Prix since it returned to the calendar in 2021, but said he expected this year’s to be his toughest yet given the competitiveness of the field at the moment – and the fact he has not won since May.

“Looking at how the season is at the moment, for sure [will be toughest race here],” he said.

“I am not coming into this weekend saying we are going to win the race. Of course we analysed over the break how to do things different or better, and we will find out how that will go.”