"He’s in a Car Which Should Win Every Race": 4 Years After Making Controversial Lewis Hamilton Comment, Lando Norris ‘Thinks’ Different Now (2024)

In 2020, Lando Norris made the controversial claim that all Lewis Hamilton had to do to win was beat at the most one or two drivers. “He’s in a car which should win every race,” Norris said, implying that his superior Mercedes hardware had made Lewis’ record-breaking season a foregone conclusion. Four years on, and having realised how tough it is to win races despite a fast car, Norris has made a complete U-turn.

All it took for Norris to understand the magnitude of Hamilton’s efforts was to experience a championship battle himself. In most of the races this year, Lando’s direct rivals were Max Verstappen or teammate Oscar Piastri — two opponents he might have considered manageable, going by his past comments about Hamilton.

How things have transpired over the course of the season has broadened Norris’ outlook about what it takes to become a champion.

“First of all, I would never think that,” Norris told The Race, talking about his 2020 comment. “For anyone who knows me, that’s definitely not how I think. But I would say it’s as tough as I’ve imagined because so many things can still easily go against you, even when you have the best car.”

Back in 2020, Hamilton dominated the season, winning nearly every race with the fastest car on the grid. However, Norris, despite having similar resources at his disposal, couldn’t replicate that kind of success in 2024. Norris has realised that the margins in Formula 1 are pretty fine. And everything has to fall in place for a victory.

“Make one mistake in a Q3 lap, you’re not on the pole when you should have been. You don’t have a perfect start when the guy who starts P2 does a perfect start, you’re P2 when you shouldn’t have been,” he added.

That said, Norris does not believe the MCL38 is the fastest car this season. To support his point, he highlighted how he has just scraped through on most occasions.

“When people think we’ve had the most dominant car ever… I’ve been on pole by three thousandths or five thousandths or two hundredths,” the McLaren driver explained.

This might simply be Norris reminding everyone once again just how dominant Hamilton’s car was in 2020. To be fair to the Bristol-born driver, the Mercedes W11 car that season was miles ahead of the competition and perfectly suited to Hamilton’s driving style. All he had to do was outperform his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, and more often than not, he found himself on the top step of the podium, spraying champagne.

While Norris has tried to negate his statement from 2020, the 25-year-old has established a reputation for making controversial statements.

Norris mocked Hamilton in Hungary

McLaren were utterly dominant at this year’s Hungarian GP as they registered an emphatic 1-2, with Piastri beating Norris for the win. Hamilton, who finished on the final step of the podium, had nothing but good words for the Woking-based squad, but Norris took it the wrong way.

All Hamilton said was, “You guys are fast,” a comment Norris most likely misunderstood.

Instead of viewing Hamilton’s remarks as a compliment, Norris interpreted them as the seven-time champion lamenting his lack of pace. In response, Norris hit back with a pointed remark, saying, “You had a fast car seven years ago.”

This wasn’t the first time Norris made contentious remarks about his rivals. Following Verstappen’s recent victory in Sao Paulo, rather than praising his sublime drive from P17 on the grid, Norris dismissed it as mere luck.