Norris makes 'rewind' wish in F1 title fight with Verstappen

Lando Norris has indicated there are moments he wishes he "could rewind" after thrusting himself into F1 title contention this year.

With 10 grands prix remaining, Norris is 78 points adrift of Red Bull's three-time F1 champion Max Verstappen. Although overhauling the Dutchman is not beyond the realms of possibility, it would still require a chain of extraordinary circumstances for the Briton to win his maiden crown.

To that extent, since finally breaking his F1 victory duck at the 110th time of asking with his triumph in Miami, Norris undoubtedly feels other chances have slipped through his fingers that would have ensured the gap between himself and Verstappen is smaller.

"From a race point of view, there have definitely been some moments that I wish I could rewind, that I wish I could do a little bit better," said Norris, speaking to RacingNews365 in an exclusive interview.

"Probably not as many as you might think, but definitely certain ones. Probably like Hungary, Canada, Silverstone."

Reflecting on the changeable conditions in Canada, and missing a crucial pit-stop window, he added: "Canada I had an opportunity to win. People don't understand how quick Mercedes was that weekend, and they should have had the easiest one-two of the whole year but didn't.

"We lost the opportunity to fight for a win rather than saying we lost the win."

Moving on to the British GP where pit stops were again pivotal, he assessed: "Silverstone, I also lost the opportunity to fight for a win because I was a lot slower than Lewis [Hamilton].

"As I said at the time, even if I had come out ahead of Lewis, I'm pretty confident I wouldn't have won the race anyway. That's quite a big point that not many people know. 

"He was a lot quicker, and their tyre degradation was a lot stronger than ours on the soft tyre. Him and George were just edging out that bit bit more than me and [team-mate] Oscar [Piastri] , so they seemed to slightly have that edge on us."

Norris questions McLaren

Norris also feels there have been occasions when McLaren could have provided more of a cutting role in elevating him to the top step of the podium more than has been the case.

"At the same time I know some of these situations, they've not been entirely on me," he assessed. "As a team, did we ask each other the right questions, say the right things? Sometimes we asked too many questions and said too many things.

"But not so many where I'm like, 'Man I completely fucked it up here kind of thing'. I don't feel like I've had those kind of things."

Turning an accusing finger on himself, he added: "But my starts in Barcelona and Hungary, that's where I lost two race wins potentially, and that is a bigger loss of a race win than Silverstone or Canada.

"There I was quick enough to win. We were quicker than Max in the race, and I lost the positioning to do so from my side.

"There are a few cases, but again, less than I would say people think from the outside.

"But on the whole I feel like I've been a much stronger driver this year than last year, and to me, that's most important."