Max Verstappen has used his brutal F1 title fight with Lewis Hamilton in 2021 as an example to Lando Norris that all is not lost after the Briton’s Dutch Grand Prix disaster on Sunday.
Four years ago, Verstappen and Hamilton were involved in a championship scrap for the ages that swung one way and the other before the Dutchman captured his maiden drivers’ title in controversial circumstances in the final race in Abu Dhabi.
Along the way, there were numerous setbacks for Verstappen, including a tyre blowout whilst leading the Azerbaijan GP; a first-lap crash at Silverstone after battling with Hamilton, and then their astonishing collision at Monza where they both ended up in the gravel.
Through it all, Verstappen remained in the fight, and despite what contentiously unfolded in Abu Dhabi, he emerged victorious.
For Norris, his retirement at Zandvoort with seven laps remaining was out of his hands, which McLaren has since identified as a chassis issue, rather than anything related to the Mercedes power unit.
It follows on from his retirement in Canada, when he ran into the back of Piastri as they battled for fourth position.
In identical machinery, as opposed to Verstappen in a Red Bull and Hamilton in a Mercedes four years ago, Norris’ mountain appears harder to climb as he trails by 34 points with nine races remaining.
Verstappen, though, has assured Norris there is still plenty of time on his side.
“It’s out of your control,” said Verstappen, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365. “So, you just need to keep working hard, keep trying to win. As simple as that.
“Especially when you are team-mates, you have the same car, same opportunities. It’s probably a little bit more complicated than when it’s two different teams, but still a lot of races, and you can see things can swing.
“You don’t know if you get a mechanical failure or not; it’s out of your control. So yes, it’s not ideal, but there are enough races to either turn it around or not, and time will tell.”
Verstappen: ‘A different league’
Norris’ retirement allowed Verstappen to claim second place and maintain his record of finishing in the top two in every edition of the race since it returned to the F1 calendar in 2021, winning the first three, and runner-up in the last two.
After starting from third on the grid, Verstappen made an early move on Norris on lap one, which he just managed to hold onto after hitting a sandy line out of the Turn 2 kink which led to a major snap.
Verstappen, though, knew it was a matter of when and not if he would be passed by Norris, appreciating the performance in hand of the MCL38 over the RB21.
Asked as to how confident he was of staying ahead of Norris, Verstappen replied: “Not at all. But I still wanted to have a bit of fun out there.
“When I got ahead, I just followed my pace, and that meant at one point Lando got ahead again. You could see, it’s a different league.
“There’s no point trying to ruin your own race defending really hard or losing two, three laps defending for your life. Unfortunately, there’s no point in that.”