Norris handed damning verdict: 'You'll never be a great champion like Verstappen'

Lando Norris will not be "a great champion” in F1 despite being backed to win a title during his career.

The McLaren driver endured a difficult grand prix last time out in Brazil, crossing the line in sixth place.

Max Verstappen dominated the field en route to victory, finishing almost 20 seconds ahead of his nearest rival after starting from 17th on the grid.

It has placed Verstappen on the verge of a fourth F1 title, a feat he can claim in the forthcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Speaking exclusively to RacingNews365, former F1 driver Martin Donnelly has stated Norris should use the coming months to better himself ahead of a potential title fight next year.

“That wasn’t the car, that was Max,” Donnelly said, reflecting on Verstappen's drive in São Paulo. “As Eddie Jordan said, he didn’t see anything from Lando at Interlagos that convinced him that Lando is going to be a great world champion.

“He’ll be a world champion one day, but not a great champion. Drives like Max produced, you're born with that. You don't learn that.

“He said that Lando needs to take a good, hard look at himself in the mirror and analyse how he can get into the performance that Max produced on that Sunday.

“Because there are great drivers, and there are brilliant drivers. Brilliant drivers in my book were [Ayrton] Senna, [and Michael] Schumacher. [Fernando] Alonso is still there. He proved with the right car, he can put it towards the front.

“Good drivers, they can win on the odd occasion. Your Coulthards, your Webbers, your Irvines - they’re good drivers, but they're not great drivers.

“They can't produce that last half a second, or cope with a car that's not on the nose and still get a lap time with it.

“That’s what Lando needs to look at over the course of the winter months because if he doesn't catch it soon and cop on to it, Max, in the wet conditions, will just turn around [and say] ‘Put me at the back of the grid. Don’t worry. I’ll bide my time and work my way towards the front because I know behind the wheel I’m the best out there’.”

Verstappen wet performance a result of karting practice

Verstappen's win came in treacherous conditions and marked his first trip to the top step of the podium since the Spanish Grand Prix in June.

When asked if he sees any driver on the grid beating Verstappen across the season with little to separate different cars, Donnelly replied: “No, because they haven’t got what Max has got.

"Lewis [Hamilton], in his early years, he had some great races at Silverstone in the wet and more or less lapped nearly the whole field.

“Lewis has been in there since 2007. He’s still a good driver, give him a good car and he’ll get there on the day.

“Max on Sunday hadn’t got the best car out there. Where was Sergio [Perez]? My God! I’m not even sure if he lapped Sergio. He didn’t make mistakes, he kept focused, he hit his apexes and kept it on the straight and narrow.”

Verstappen was joined on the podium by the Alpine duo of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, who gifted the French team its best result of the campaign.

Donnelly highlighted that the skills that allowed them to succeed in the wet conditions were instilled during their karting days.

“That’s just something he [Verstappen] has honed from his early years in karting," remarked Donnelly. "While the guys were in the motorhome keeping warm and drinking cocoa, he was out there in the wet on slick tyres getting soaked because his dad put him out there.

“The other two guys at Alpine, those top three, all came from karting, all were out there testing in the wet conditions because their fathers or teams said, ‘This will stand by you. You go out there, you will learn so much’.

“In the dry, with Alpine, they were nowhere. And in the wet conditions, it gave the chance for a driver’s talent to shine through.

“Where have Ocon and Gasly been during the year? In wet conditions, their talents in the wet came to the front.

“And I hope everybody else needs to give themselves a good talking to and say, ‘What’s going on here?’ going into 2025 and beyond.”