Lando Norris is confident he will be able to bounce back from his championship defeat to launch an F1 title challenge next season.
Max Verstappen sealed his fourth successive world crown at the Las Vegas Grand Prix after he established an unassailable 63-point cushion over Norris with 60 points to play for across the remaining two rounds, in Qatar on Sunday and the following weekend in Abu Dhabi.
Verstappen won four of the opening five races before Norris emerged as his main challenger following the British driver’s maiden victory at the sixth round of the campaign in Miami.
But the 25-year-old was only able to add only two more wins after a series of mistakes by driver and team derailed his ambitions of landing a first world title.
However, Norris’ McLaren team could land the constructors’ championship this year – they lead Ferrari by 24 points – and the Bristolian expects he will be in a position to take on the grid’s newly crowned four-time world champion in 2025.
“I feel like I can fight for a world championship,” said Norris. “I can say that confidently now, that I have what it takes.
“Next year we will go into the season with a car we think we can win the championship with from the first race and I am very excited for that.
“I have some things to work on but I can fight Max. He is the best driver in the world and one of the best drivers there has ever been in Formula One.
“I am proud of how the championship went. Do I wish it could have gone further down the line? Sure, but the championship was lost in the first six races when Max dominated. He opened up a points gap that was just too difficult to claw back.
“He deserves the championship but hopefully I can upset him next year.”
Norris and Verstappen shared an embrace as the two drivers conducted their broadcast interviews in the television pen after the race.
Verstappen then put his left arm around Norris to console his rival on his title defeat.
“We have had a lot of moments together, off-track as well,” said Verstappen. “I told him ‘your time will come one day, and you have to be patient’.
“Even at McLaren when it was not going that well, I said to him ‘I know that you are capable of winning titles’.
“Now this year there was that opportunity and at one point it looked as though it would be a proper battle. We overturned it to our advantage but it is looking as though they will win the constructors’ championship.
“We keep battling, we have a lot of respect for each other and of course it was very nice that he just came back into the pen to congratulate me. That’s how it should be.”
