Asked if he believes he needs to win every race from here, Piastri quipped, “It’d certainly help.”
Norris, who celebrated his 26th birthday last week, attributed the turnaround to finding new mental strength throughout the season — or learning to “just ignore everyone that talks crap about you,” as he put it in Brazil. He conceded that the criticisms were negatively affecting him and that he “cared too much” — but is now better at dealing with it.
He has also found his rhythm in the 2025 McLaren car after struggling to adapt to its evolving characteristics earlier in the season, which led to him over-driving it and making costly errors. He has since cut out those mistakes, and the results show it.
In a separate interview away from the paddock, Norris said he’s about to have “probably three of the biggest weekends of my life.” While he said he’s excited to race in Las Vegas, he recalled that his McLaren struggled on these streets during the last two years, giving him “some of our worst weekends of the whole season.”
And while the team championship has been won up by McLaren, there’s a heated three-way battle for second place between Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari. The constructors’ standings award the cash prizes, giving those teams an incentive to go all out in the final few races to claim the best spot.
The race weekend comes at a much-needed time for Las Vegas, which has seen its lucrative tourism industry decline in 2025 due to high costs and economic uncertainty. The F1 Grand Prix has delivered a major boost to the city in the last two years, with an estimated $934 million impact last year, said one estimate.