Norris jibes Verstappen after 'unrealistic' F1 title claim

Lando Norris has dismissed Max Verstappen's idea that the F1 world title is "unrealistic" for Red Bull, believing he simply thinks that to "make himself feel better."

Norris is currently 52 points behind Verstappen in the F1 drivers' standings with six rounds remaining and 180 points left on the board. 

The McLaren driver won dominantly last time out in Singapore, but Verstappen rescued what could have been a difficult result with second place, limiting the points loss to just seven. 

That came after the Italian GP, which Red Bull described as its worst race of the year where Verstappen could only labour to sixth, after which he branded the idea of winning a fourth title as "unrealistic" unless upgrades delivered a boost to the flagging RB20 machine.

When asked about Verstappen's comment, Norris insisted Verstappen was still title favourite. 

"That is just Max saying what he wants to say," Norris told media including RacingNews365.

"Even if I win every race, [catching him] is still not an easy thing to achieve, so he is still easily the one in a better position. 

"I would much rather be in his position than in my position, and as soon as Red Bull can figure out where they've gone wrong, I expect them to win a few races, to be fixing their problems and come back strong again. 

"It is not like they've been that far off at every race. Monza was probably their worst race, but Max has still not been far off in many races. He is certainly close to winning. 

"I think he just says it to make himself feel a little bit better. He is still in a much stronger position than I am."