Lando Norris believes he has a shot at delaying Max Verstappen’s championship celebrations beyond Las Vegas Grand Prix, and said he’s “here to race.”
Norris added it will not make any difference to him if the Red Bull driver clinches on Saturday night.
Verstappen is on the brink of a fourth world title and will secure it in Las Vegas if Norris fails to outscore him by three points.
The championship leader qualified in fifth place for the race, ahead of Norris in sixth, meaning he will be crowned champion if they finish in the same positions in Sunday’s race.
“I mean, whether he wins or not tomorrow, for me it’s not going to change anything,” Norris said. “He’s pretty likely to win the championship, but I’m here to race and do my best in every single race I can.
“Whether Max finishes ahead or not, that’s life. He’s only just ahead of us today, I think we have a chance to beat him tomorrow.
“But, you know, I’ll go out and do my best like I do in every single race. And whatever the outcome is, the outcome is.”
With three races remaining, Norris is the only driver clinging on to a mathematical possibility of beating Verstappen to the title this year.
He said that fact made him proud and believes the reason the title battle did not go down to the wire was due to McLaren’s relative lack of competitiveness early in the season.
“I’m the one there fighting Max, so I’m proud that it’s me and not anyone else,” he said. “Do I wish it could have gone a bit further down the line? Sure.
“But the Las Vegas GP: Lando Norris on F1 title – ‘I’m here to race’ race was lost in the first six races of the year. That’s when Max dominated, it’s when Red Bull were too far ahead and the points got to a gap which was too difficult to claw back.
“I’m proud, I’m happy we’ve brought it this far. And it’s us, no one else.”
Although Norris’ chances of winning the drivers’ title remain slim, his McLaren team is in a tight battle for the constructors’ championship with Ferrari.
McLaren lead the Italian team by 36 points, but both Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri, who qualified eighth, will start behind the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz (second on the grid) and Charles Leclerc (fourth).
Asked if Saturday’s race was more about damage limitation for McLaren’s title charge, he added: “At the minute, that’s what you would say. It could be that tomorrow we put on the hard tyre [in the race] and things come our way a little bit.
“Every race this year we struggled with graining, we’ve not been good on the softer tyres. It’s the same now, but it’s almost the case in a quali lap, you almost start to grain the tyres already. We struggle a lot in these kind of conditions.
“So I’m hoping when we put the medium on a little bit, I mean they still grain very easily, but when we put the hard on, hopefully things click a little bit. It’s just our weaknesses on how the car is with the front tyres.
“It’s been an issue for a while. We’ve not been able to tackle it as much as what I would have liked at this point. I’m not paying the price for that kind of thing.”
