Norris shuts down Red Bull F1 slump scale

Lando Norris has played down the extent of Red Bull's recent struggles in F1, insisting McLaren struggled to an even greater extent at the start of the campaign.

After starting the season strongly, Red Bull has slipped back in the pecking order of late and is without a win to its name since the Spanish Grand Prix in June.

That has allowed McLaren to take control of the constructors' championship as it leads Red Bull by 41 points, whilst Norris is just 52 adrift of Max Verstappen in the drivers' standings.

Although the Milton Keynes-based squad has struggled for form, Norris is wary of it again returning to race-winning ways over the final quarter of the season, with six of a record-breaking 24 races remaining.

“If you go back to the beginning of the year, Red Bull was still dominant,” Norris told media including RacingNews365.

“They won the first four or five races of the year [four from five], and Max had [something] like the first eight poles of the year [seven] and they were beating us by bigger margins than we're beating them by.

“They're having a less difficult time than we had at the beginning of the year. They're still more in the race than we were at the beginning of the year.

“But we've turned things around, and at the same time, I strongly believe they can still turn things around quite quickly.”

Norris - F1 title for Max to lose

Norris added Red Bull's struggles were elevated across the Italian and Azerbaijan race weekends but highlighted it was only Verstappen who suffered in Baku where team-mate Sergio Perez crashed on the penultimate lap with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in chasing a podium

There was then a recovery to an extent in Singapore where three-time F1 champion Verstappen started and finished second, albeit 21 seconds adrift of Norris by the end of the 62 laps.

“It's only been the [Italian and Azerbaijan weekends] where I would say that they've been off the pace," said Norris. "A little bit in qualifying but probably more so the race itself. 

“But then, if you go back to [the Baku] weekend, Max just said he didn't get the set up right. That was his excuse for it, and Checo did [get it right].

“Checo was maybe one of the quickest and should have won the race. That's Max having a bad weekend, not Red Bull having a bad weekend.

“So I think people just need to look more specifically at what things are obvious and in front of them, and not kind of make judgments on general stuff. 

“But it [the title] is still for him to lose, not for me. I'm still the one that's got nothing to lose at the minute.”