How Close Should Lando Be To Max?

In this video, we ask the big question: What if Lando Norris had a better season so far? 🤔 There’s been a lot of frustration surrounding McLaren and Norris, with many saying they’ve thrown away a chance to battle for the 2024 F1 title. But is that really the case? Let’s break it down!
#mclarenf1 #f1 #formula1
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🟠 Missed Opportunities: We’ll go through each race of the season and look at key moments where McLaren's strategy or Norris’ bad luck might have cost them. Was the team’s decision-making holding them back from a true championship fight? And how different would the season look with better strategies in play?
💥 Verstappen Collision: What if Lando hadn’t been hit by Verstappen? We’ll analyze the impact that incident had on McLaren's momentum and how it could have changed the standings.
🏎️ Oscar Piastri's Role: Could a clearer team order between Norris and rookie teammate Oscar Piastri have helped McLaren push for better results? We dive into the dynamics between the two and whether making Piastri a solid number 2 would have kept McLaren closer to the championship battle.
🔮 Championship Potential: How close could Lando and McLaren actually be to challenging the top teams? We’ll look ahead to the rest of the season and predict what needs to happen for McLaren to get back in the mix.
🗣️ Share Your Thoughts: What do you think? Could McLaren be fighting for the title if a few things went their way? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
🔔 Subscribe for More F1 Insights: If you love in-depth F1 discussions, hit that subscribe button and turn on notifications so you never miss an update on McLaren, Norris, and the 2024 season!
Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. There are certain scenes from the Formula 1 calendar where race footage is used. All those rights are property of FOM. Other photos and news elements are used solely for the purpose of assisting the original content illuminate a more in depth story.

[@Lando4Life]

I believe that Norris needs to gain an average of 7.75 points per race to win the title but I feel like Piastri may just ruin his chance

[@NotApplicableJB]

You are correct, I rounded that to 8 because that is easier to follow race by race. Piastri has nabbed at least 10 points off Norris with Hungary and Monza so there may be more to come.

[@JohnnyB-w8j]

Piastri isn’t ruining anything. He’s racing and isn’t that the name of the game? Team orders are a stain on F1! If Norris is truly WDC material. Then race and win fairly, people have always detested team orders. Norris himself has said that he doesn’t want the team to intervene in their battle. Also before you mention the debacle that was the Hungarian GP. I didn’t agree with the team orders then either. Mclaren royally screwed that one up, not the drivers.

[@rhino69420]

@@JohnnyB-w8jexactly! It’s a race, not a silly agreement

[@sumerrana6805]

*Mclaren not Piastri

[@Justanaccountforthings]

Piastri races to fill his own trophy cabinet and not Landos.

[@_ariosto1519]

In Max own words: “if my mom had 🏀 ⚽️, she would be my dad!” 😅

[@NotApplicableJB]

If Lando had an easy teammate he'd be a world champion

[@sumerrana6805]

@@NotApplicableJB 🤣 bang on, swap Oscar and Checo mid season

[@africanpenguin3104]

I love that quote, yeah but it always if if if …

[@mohdalyase9274]

“ The way to win a championship is not by yourself; it's with a team. You're going to need Oscar, and you're going to need the team.” is aging like already aged milk .

[@sumerrana6805]

it was a bluff, Mclaren scammed their own driver who stuck with them during tough times rejecting offers from bigger teams

[@mohdalyase9274]

@@sumerrana6805 the way it looks , they don’t gave a shit about wdc which will affect them in near future , who are a world champion material that don’t wont a team that support him , this will backfire badly for mclaren

[@michaelcobbin]

It was no bluff and probably saved Lando position at McLaren. Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the McLaren Group/McLaren F1 team owner, was at the Hungarian GP. Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa is passionate about racing, like Zak Brown, from what have heard, wants both drivers to fight it out on the track with no favouritism. Those radio calls to Lando was all about saving Lando’s hide from the big boss himself. If you are wondering who Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa is, he’s one who received the Constructors Trophy on the Hungarian GP podium.

[@maxdavis7722]

@@michaelcobbinwhat? It saved him? Elaborate.

[@michaelcobbin]

@@maxdavis7722 From being fired. Did you missed the interview that Lando gave were straight after the Hungarian GP, Andrea Stella and Lando had a one-on-one meeting and Andrea to tore strips off him? Do you miss the fact that Lando was very uncomfortable being next to the McLaren F1 team owner for the 1-2 team celebration photo after the Hungarian GP? Did you missed the fact that Lando issued a public apology on the Tuesday after the race? Lando was in the dog house for a couple of days. Imagine if Lando, with only 1 F1 GP at the time, did commit to a Sebastian Vettel Multi-21 in a team that proud itself giving both drivers equal chances?

[@snorkman2]

Now imagine doing this for Oscar Piastri. How many points would he be on if he got McLaren upgrades first? Or the many MANY times McLaren butchered his race to favour Lando. The only reason McLaren made the swap at Hungary was because it literally breached Oscar's contract, and they had no other choice. They still favour Lando.

[@frankszernevics4757]

if if if if, thats all ifs

[@NotApplicableJB]

But some important ifs when it comes to if Norris is actually in the title battle

[@sidawan9297]

​@@NotApplicableJB Let's be honest 1: a perfect season would still result in Max's lead atm, so it would be an open fight, just like it is now, if RBR can't find what's wrong. 2: Max's ifs should be factored too, with multiple terrible tire changes, the brake going on a cig break etc. 3: if the season ends in a close fight for either side, the other can say "if only xyz didn't happen". But whan an absolute great thing would it be to see piastry win in the end :D (EDIT: great thing as in terms of a thrilling fight, not meaning im rooting for that result.) Still, great video even with some inconsistences (for example: imo you saying it was just bad driving from lando, and even him admitting it is problematic and should not be a point of yours, as every start failure is bad driving too) but bringing up correct, graphed data, guiding viewers' eyes on them is a strength of yours. Keep up the good work!

[@judealexander5227]

If my mom had balls she be my dad

[@Charles-ly5ds]

i think that’s the point of the video

[@rsotuyo15]

"if is F1 spelled backwards"

[@noonne101]

Now we have to get Zak Brown to watch this video

[@NotApplicableJB]

That would be insane. Although I am not sure he would be happy with me...

[@KailiLive]

You mean Stella?

[@noonne101]

​@@KailiLiveBoth would be great to be honest 😮‍💨

[@itsamemario75]

now do a 'what if oscar piastri had a better start to this season'

[@racecrasher99]

More like if simply the Miami GP didn’t go so unlucky for Piastri/Max too. Wrong SC procedure, Oscar was P2 with the old spec car, Lando P5-6 got promoted to P1 by luck. Oscar got a puncture from Sainz for good measure. At least a 32 point swing between the two drivers.

[@NotApplicableJB]

I'm not sure anyone was beating Max in the first few races. Oscar came P4 a couple of times which was as good as it could probably have been

[@itsamemario75]

@@NotApplicableJB fair, fair. but oscar also had a lot of bad luck in the earlier races, plus with lando getting bigger upgrades than oscar at times. i think he would've potentially been higher in the standings than he is today if things truly worked in his favour

[@JohnnyB-w8j]

@@itsamemario75 yes but that’s not important. People don’t want to talk about how Piastri ain’t a number 2. They just want him to play ball. Look how that’s tuned out for people who become defacto number 2 drivers. Bottas is a prime example of why Piastri should fight tooth and nail.

[@Jasongilliar]

​@@NotApplicableJBnow f1 Made a, what if f1 was pure european. Oscar would be champion

[@messtin]

I understand the Hungary decision from McLaren. It was Oscar's first win and Lando really didn't do enough to convince people he had a shit at the driver championship. Monza is the first time he has ever consecutively gain on Max in 16 races.

[@andrewhazlewood4569]

The real reason is it was the strategy team that gave Lando a lead he hadn’t earned on a track where it is hard to pass. If they let Lando keep the lead it would have been a stolen unearned win.

[@NotApplicableJB]

I feel like Norris gave up Hungary so that things like Monza wouldn't happen though. Seems like a weird set of rules the Papaya team are running

[@maggi9834]

⁠@@NotApplicableJBthat wasn’t weird at all. McLaren pitted Norris first in Hungary because they didn’t want to risk losing a position to Hamilton. If they had a 10sec gap they simply would have pitted Piastri first and Lando second and everything would be fine but the gap to Hamilton wasn’t big enough. So the decided to pit Norris first to protect him and then simply swap positions. It’s an unwritten rule in a lot of F1 teams that teammates don’t undercut each other for position, especially not for the win.

[@Idk-ys7rt]

I think that Norris will have a chance to close it up in the next 8 races.

[@NotApplicableJB]

He needs a Max DNF and to be pretty much perfect in my opinion

[@nidhisingla7880]

Please McLaren give him terrible strategy and pit stops and atleast 3 dnfs

[@itsamemario75]

@@nidhisingla7880 yes please mclaren i beg of you

[@Idk-ys7rt]

@@NotApplicableJB Yeah but I think that is definitely possible. I just don't know whether Norris and McLaren will take that chance.

[@sedwars3616]

​@@NotApplicableJBno all lando needs is to finish with 8 points more than max every single race

[@Stubwood_on_YT]

Great content mate 👏

[@NotApplicableJB]

Thank so much Stubwood!

[@exert2020]

Great video. I was waiting for someone to do this.

[@NotApplicableJB]

Thanks so much!

[@ClareKix]

This is a truly brilliant video, James! A well-informed and interesting summary of all the mistakes/misfortune over the season so far. This is why I love your long-form content!

[@ZPazTV]

lets see how the redbulls go in Singapore with everyone a lot closer it could be less points then they got last year which could change everything be we can only wait and see

[@NotApplicableJB]

Singapore is always an outlier track for Red Bull though. I am more interested to see how Red Bull do in Texas. That will decide if there is any hope at a championship.

[@roy-yal]

​@@NotApplicableJByou are just simply blind. In singapore Max can easily lose 20points if Lando could finally win with the fastest car. Even in Zandvoort+ Monza they could have gained 30 points on Max if they didnt f*ck up. But they did, yet they still managed to score more points than what he needs on average. You are just delutional if you think that Lando needs to win all remaining races. He literally just need 2 races where Max finishes outside the top 5 which could happen very easily.

[@youbetu18]

@@roy-yal nah bro what he is trying to say is that its not about the tracks where RB is naturally weak as they are factored in, but about the tracks where RB is naturally strong. Texas and Qatar have a lot of high speed turns made for the RB. Remember how strong it was in Spa? Max would have easily dominated that race without engine penalty. he got pole by large margin too. So even though Lando can pick up a haul of points in Baku and Singapore, which is expected, if he gets then beat in Texas and Qatar it stays almost impossible to win the WDC. so thats why he is more interested in the RB tracks. but yea call him blind like the arrogant little child you are.

[@Dabayare]

The only guy taking points off MV is LH who is always finishing ahead of him and even stood his ground when MV crashed into him.

[@tomclark297]

tbh, theres still 8 races left. I reckon norris will get close - but with the current mistakes he's making, max will only just win. But with a slow redbull, max can't do much with that.

[@NotApplicableJB]

The problem is I can't see Red Bull staying as bad as they were in Monza. Max will get at least one more win this season

[@RA1KU]

Norris is a lovely bloke but he needs to find his inner Verstappen and start full sending the first few laps, then he might genuinely do it but these small mistakes are why he is getting scrutinized so much this season. However this season ends, next year Mclaren is going to have a nightmare with both their drivers.

[@faustinaadu2284]

We also can’t forget landos Quali bottle in Bahrain, the strategy in Jeddah, Lando not undercutting Leclerc in Melbourne, the questionable strategy in Japan and the terrible start in the China sprint race

[@Gaigoomee]

Great video! I haven't watched your content before, but it is really good! Keep it up!

[@amcpherson2025]

Great video, but I would like to note that Sainz was restored to 3rd after the red flag in Monaco. Lando likely would’ve finished on the podium if Sainz was placed in his position at the time of the crash, and even though that’s only three points, it could matter come December.

[@Mik1604]

Norris was already screwing up his starts in his F3 days. This won’t get any better.

[@aoife1122]

But what does this say about Piastri then? Norris, despite all his blunders, has still managed to outclass Piastri this season by any metric one could possibly apply. And when Norris does get everything right, like, for example in Zandvoort, the difference between the two is just staggering. Pole positions, fastest laps, race results, podiums, victories... Piastri is playing second fiddle to Norris in ALL categories.

[@speedyplays3663]

@@aoife1122 Its Piastri’s 2nd season in F1, compared to his rookie season he’s already better in every aspect. I dont think there’s a way apart from team orders that norris outscores piastri in the second half of the season

[@aoife1122]

@@speedyplays3663 Nobody's denying Piastri's talent but if McLaren do not step in, Norris will be forced to fight Piastri "tooth and nails" now, show the whippersnapper who "the boss" is, Papaya rules and the WCC be damned... because, what's his alternative? Take it handy, allow Piastri to run rampant and, in doing so, kiss his slim chances for the drivers' title good-bye? I don't think so. Norris has surely realized by now who his worst enemy is in all of this is. McLaren isn't exactly in a position where they can afford any "Barcelona moments", not with Ferrari and a "reinvigourated" Leclerc now hot on their heels. We shall see, how all this is playing out in the next races. P.S. Even if a car is in a "class of its own" (which the MCL38 is not) it's sometimes not enough to win the title. Ask Piquet and Mansell... funny enough, it was McLaren's Alain Prost who had the last laugh in 1986.

[@icrafterchips]

I feel like every race will come with another twist to the battle

[@valecasini]

8:15 I think that in this alternative universe (without that many fumbles between him and McLaren) his morale would be much higher and maybe his driving too would be better (?)

[@MistralValon]

Norris had really good pace and tyre deg in monza and had he been in front i think mclaren commit to a 1 stop and he wins, piastri was good especially in the middle stint but just struggled at the end, if we get those points, lando moves 1 point away from max which if he finishes the race in austria he get a fastest lap point most likely and then yorue tied going into a double header of chaotic tracks

[@sumerrana6805]

This video shattered my heart Thank you

[@kevintaylor921]

The Hungary switch would not be why they lost the WDC if Lando does not win - even if they did get the 1-2 the strategy was weird as hell. They would have lost purely through their own ineptitude and Lando making some mistakes for def

[@JohnnyB-w8j]

Let them race. Team orders are so detestable in F1! I applaud Mclaren for letting them race. After all they are one another’s direct competition. May the best driver win. That’s how the sport should be. Redbull and Mercedes have set the trend for team order nonsense. Also I think Oscar has a much higher ceiling than Lando ultimately does. So if Mclaren favour Lando, that might be good in the short-term. However think about it from a long-term perspective. Oscar has won everything leading up to f1. He’s got champion written all over him. If Mclaren show favouritism then Oscar will walk and get signed by some other team that respects him and is willing to let him fight fairly. He’s also off contract in 2026! If I were Mclaren I’d rather have Oscar driving under your umbrella compared to letting him driver for your direct competitors come the new rule cycle.

[@aoife1122]

Maybe that's how it should be like... but the reality is that Formula 1 has not been like that ever since pre-war racing legend Luigi Fagioli was forced to swap his healthy car with Juan Manuel Fangio's misfiring one at the 1951 French Grand Prix (Fangio went on to win the race and the first of his five championships while Fagioli immediately after the race retired from the sport for good). Team orders are as old as F1 and have been a vital and often decisive part of the strategy. As a matter of fact, McLaren won their last "double" (in 1998) in no small part thanks to the application of team orders from the very first race of the season... because they were up against a titan of the sport and could not afford to leave anything to chance.

[@Ferrarichad]

I think he could have got fastest lap point in monaco if he pitted cos he was 4th by a mile to george

[@etbgaming5177]

Who’s here after lando finished p17 in baku qualifying?

[@mohamudhassan2784]

Norris outscored verstappen😂

[@danellis-jones1591]

I've got a new phone. I didn't realise KZbin was this high resolution!

[@NotApplicableJB]

Now you can see me in HD

[@sumerrana6805]

congratulations bruv

[@ayushdas17]

One two DNFs from Max will make this season very interesting, A three way battle for drivers Championship

[@syndicategaming1668]

In Monaco he did lose points. He finished 4th because he didn’t qualify well. That’s 6 aditional points

[@ragnar400o]

I guess this messy season from Norris & McLaren is for the better in terms of excitement. If someone like Alonso was in that McLaren the championship would be a foregone conclusion at this point. Right now it really seems to be going down to the wire.

[@peterangiolella2907]

So essentially this is “if” everything went right for Norris and everything went wrong for Verstappen…

[@the_P_I_G]

If Piastri didn't get the grid drop in Imola he could've helped Lando since he would have started on pole

[@Otsantos5]

He qualified behind Max in second.

[@the_P_I_G]

@@Otsantos5 oh sorry I misremembered

[@fplfieco22]

Why do people never acknowledge Saudi Arabia and start in China or Miami when analysing Lando's season. So frustrating

[@annekeruben3238]

I think it is a headache to McLaren that somehow Red Bull has dipped in performance... It's nice to have the excuse that "they have the quickest car and are cheating blah blah blah..", but now that they have the quickest car, it is like it is an annoyance or hindrance. They are so unprepared to capitalise on Red Bulls' shortcomings. It's actually sort of a joke.

[@fplfieco22]

My opinion of where Lando missed out compared to Max Where there is multiple numbers I'm unsure Saudi Arabia +8 China Sprint +1 to +4 Miami Sprint +3 Imola +0 Monaco +13 Canada +0 Spain +0 to +14 Austria Sprint +1 Austria +3 to +25 Great Britain +14 Hungary +7 Belgium +17 Monza +3

[@anuppaudel698]

First of all, please tell Lando not to bottle every opportunity he gets😅😅😅😅😅. Oscar is very consistent throughout the season and don't forget he is the only driver for 2024 season who hasn't got DNF.

[@arposkraft3616]

Bit of him a bit the team a bit being behind at the start of the season ..if irs close at the end it will be one of those coulda woulda shoulda But youknow im probably not more qualified then the full mclaren team so i doubt i would end better in the standings All in all a lot of negativity while in reality its an absolute miracle my team found its way back to the front

[@sachinbk1347]

He can still beat Max if he can get his act together and if McLaren can bring in some sort of order in the team. But I don't think McLaren want to win the WDC.

[@Stantube1000]

Truth is MAX \erstappen would've been in the lead of the Championship in that Mclaren by bigger margin than he has now in that Red bull.

[@Gaminghunter2000]

There is one huge issue with this video. Not *once* did you mention how the Mclaren's are THE fastest car on the grid and how Redbull is slipping to the p6 range. Its Norris' championship to lose, its all in his hands

[@maxdavis7722]

Why would he mention it?

[@Gaminghunter2000]

Because the topic of the video is how close should he be. Having the fastest car is a huge factor and it’s up to LANDO to lose it

[@maxdavis7722]

@@Gaminghunter2000 right but simply saying “fastest car = win every race” is stupid. There are numerous other factors and for most of the season, McLaren has not been notably faster, just enough to be competitive at the top positions regularly. He had no reason to mention the McLaren is currently faster. It’s not what he was evaluating in the video.

[@Gaminghunter2000]

@@maxdavis7722where did I ever say that having the fastest car wins you the race automatically? Lando having the fastest car means he can regularly be on the podium and that should be enough since Verstappen is outside of top 6 as it seems. Maybe if you watched what happened in Monza you would understand

[@maxdavis7722]

@@Gaminghunter2000 still isn’t relevant to the video, seems like you didn’t watch it.

[@stbcs620]

Why i have a feeling that Verstappen will win the championship by 24 points difference from Norris?

[@tomeddie14]

You're bang on with this. This just shows that Mclaren and Lando have fumbled a championship challenge!

[@JG-cm7xu]

What if Verstappen has a dnf and a few finishes outside of the Top 10 That would keep the championship alive for him But honestly everyone knows that won't happen

[@NotApplicableJB]

Verstappen is just so consistent. As I said in the video even if you give Norris a few races in his favour Max still has almost the same number of points

[@sumerrana6805]

Max will be Max, Lando will have to up his game Mclaren need to support him

[@Bananananananannananananna]

Im not gonna calculate the maths. But id imagine if norris didnt throw lots of races and won he would be within 30-40 points of max now. Mb even less.

[@juliushegge4845]

Wow so the way for Norris to win his teammate needs to give him position every time? What happened to all you need to do in the fastest car is beat 1 or 2 cars

[@danydeezy3243]

So do we all agree Piastri might be faster than Lando

[@Funcrashmalej]

I honestly want Max to get his 4th title. We know that at this rate his dominance will come to an end in 2025, but 2024 title would be very nice for him.

[@bruhhhhmoment4848]

If Norris has 1 bad race McLaren is cooked

[@ArjunCoelho-tv2lv]

Didn't you change the title of the video 🤔, I'm sure you did

[@ArjunCoelho-tv2lv]

Nice video tho

[@NotApplicableJB]

Just testing a few things out 😊

[@Ferrarichad]

Papaya rules is costing him.

[@NotApplicableJB]

Papaya rules has cost him at least 10 points already

[@Ferrarichad]

@@NotApplicableJB agreed. Mclaren should have a clear 1. If they did in monza they would of pulled away and beat us, which is 10 points just there, 7 in Hungary giving 17+ lost points. It doesnt even benefit either of them just causing intrateam conflict which aint getting them a wdc

[@eversor10]

Max is a demon and Lando doesn't have Holy water

[@aoife1122]

It can be argued that McLaren should have made "the call" as early as Austria, this would have been another point, had they swapped positions in the sprint race. But then, it's all moot though... McLaren seems hellbent on making amends for the Williams debacle in 1986, when "their boy Alain" was having the last laugh. 😂

[@brandonotte3359]

Versatppen

[@NotApplicableJB]

Amx

[@daybench]

@@NotApplicableJB ut ut ut ut amx versatppen

[@gruggus2875]

The only thing I disagee with is Piastri being (definitively) faster in monza. Norris was in dirty air for most of the race and we saw in spa/hungary (probably zandvoort as well) just how much of a difference it was for that car. Not disparaging Piastri just saying Norris would probably match the lap times if in the same position

[@NotApplicableJB]

That is a great point. The McLaren really dislikes being stuck behind other cars and is a different animal in clean air.

[@platformbootsofmegatron]

I still think lando will win the championship Because in the final races McLaren will throw everything at max verstappen to give lando that final push

[@NotApplicableJB]

I think he might get close but he needs to be almost perfect for the rest of the season

[@platformbootsofmegatron]

@@NotApplicableJB I meant Baku and Singapore were redbull's nightmare even when they were having the most dominant car So i don't know how they are gonna perform in these tracks with the rb20 hopefully Lando can gain huge points against max in this 2 races i would go with a 40 points gain maybe Or the maximum it can go it 42

[@platformbootsofmegatron]

@@NotApplicableJB even if Lando gained like 18 points in this 2 races considering without getting the fastest laps The gap would reduce to 26 points And with fastest laps it would be 24 So hopefully Lando can win these 2 races to gain huge points against max