Norris delivers McLaren rallying cry in Verstappen pursuit

Lando Norris believes he would be "silly" to rule out mounting a F1 title challenge against Max Verstappen in the second-half of the season. 

Verstappen heads into the Belgian Grand Prix on 265 points, with Norris the only other driver within 100 points, currently 77 behind on 189 heading into the Belgian GP weekend. 

In the remaining 11 rounds, there are 310 points up for grabs including sprint races, with Verstappen having won seven of the 13 rounds up to Hungary, and Norris just one.

However, the McLaren and Red Bull cars are as a cross-roads with the MCL38 now regarded as the fastest car on the grid as the RB20 is struggling for performance. 

Although Norris accepts it is a tall order to hunt down Verstappen, he believes he and McLaren are capable of rising to the challenge.

"You would be silly to say no. But don't get me wrong, I know it's like 70, 80 points that I've got to catch up," he told media including RacingNews365. 

"So I know a lot of people are going to say that there's no chance, but we're going to keep fighting and I'm going to give myself the best opportunity to do so. 

"You know, especially when you see Max and Red Bull not performing so well, making mistakes, and crashing, you want to make the most of those opportunities and plenty more can happen in the future. 

"So, yes, I think it's still on. I know it's a big stretch and optimistic like I said before, but I'm not going to say no to the challenge and definitely, as a team, we won't."

McLaren has the fastest car?

Norris is currently engaged in his first F1 title fight, having never been in a consistently front-running machine to do so, with McLaren also just 61 points behind Red Bull in the constructors'. 

The theory that the MCL38 is the quickest machine on the grid has earned a lot of traction in recent weeks, but it is one Norris disagrees with.

"I said at the end of last year that we were going to win races this year, I said at the beginning of the year that it was not going to be an easy one for Red Bull, and all of that's come true," he explained. 

"We've done an amazing job as a team, and so I think, first of all, we have to give credit to the team for giving us a car in order to do that. We've won [in Hungary] but this is the second win of the year. Red Bull have had way more wins. Mercedes have had the same amount of wins as we've had. 

"So just because we won [Hungary] and we've had a dominant weekend doesn't mean we're the quickest car. I think maybe two weekends this year, we've had the best car on the grid. That's it. 

"People can come up with their own opinions and say what they like. But, do we have opportunities to maybe win more? Yes. Did we necessarily have the quickest car on those days? I don't think so.

"But when I think of what we're doing now, what we are able to do in the future in the short term and also long term after the summer break, and if we have more days like [Hungary] then of course [we can challenge for the title].

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