Norris needs ‘little changes’ to beat Verstappen

MEXICO CITY — Lando Norris suggested he will change the way he approaches racing Max Verstappen on track after the way their U.S. Grand Prix battle ended.

Norris passed Verstappen for third late in the Austin race but was forced off the race track while doing so.

Verstappen also went off track defending his position but the stewards decided Norris had gained an advantage by leaving the circuit

The McLaren driver was handed a five-second penalty which dropped him behind Verstappen, something Norris called a “momentum killer” in his title fight with the Red Bull driver.

When asked if he needs to be more aggressive if he wants to beat Verstappen, Norris said: “It’s not an easy answer, honestly. It’s not as simple as just saying yes. Do I need to make some changes? Yes. And still adapt a little bit more. But ‘is everything I’m doing wrong’ also is a no.

“So it’s a tough position to be in because like we saw, Max didn’t care if he won, or second, or third. His only job was to beat me, and he did that, so he did a good job from that side. And I had a lot of fun, and I respected our battle that we had. But yeah, he still ended up on top, and I need to be beating him, so some little things I need to change, but I don’t need to change my whole approach.”

Norris is now 57 points behind Verstappen with five races and two sprints left in the season.

The question of Norris’ approach has dominated this season. Even before their controversial moment at the end of the race, he had been forced wide at Turn 1 by Verstappen and lost the lead.

Norris suggested he is the one who has prevented the pair from repeating their Austrian Grand Prix collision from earlier this year.

“Clearly Max is very good at what he does, and is probably the best in the world at what he does. So when I’m going up against the best in the world, it’s not going to be an easy thing to do. And he’s been racing in this position for longer than I have, I’m definitely not doing a perfect job, but I’m not doing a bad job. I’m still staying there, I’m avoiding collisions, which a lot of things that we’ve done could have easily been and turned into worse things, like bigger crashes and stuff.”

“It’s clear what his intentions are, it’s a difficult route for me to get around, getting caught up in collisions and things like Turn 1 easily could have been, or Turn 12 easily could have been. So he’s in a much more powerful position than I am, it’s up to me and the team to try and overcome that.”

Norris still does not agree with the penalty he received — the topic of racing rules dominated Thursday’s media day activities ahead of this week’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

“I have not spoken to Max at all [about it]. Because he did what I guess he thought was right, I did what I thought was right. I still disagree, and I think as a team we still disagree. I think the majority of people who were watching disagreed with the penalty that I got.

“But I’ll make the changes that I need to make, whether it’s being more aggressive at times, or less aggressive, or whatever. I’ll do what I think is right.”