Red Bull senior fears Lando Norris will be more dangerous for Max Verstappen after his win in Miami

Red Bull senior member Helmut Marko fears Lando Norris will now be more dangerous to Max Verstappen as he has now won his first race. The young McLaren driver had been knocking on the door of a first win for some time now. Norris has been notorious for being extremely harsh on himself.

In the 2021 F1 Russian GP, a late race call in the rain cost him a win and he carried the stigma with him for years. This was precisely why when Oscar Piastri ended up winning the sprint in Qatar, Lando Norris was distraught.

In the 2024 F1 season, however, things have changed, Lando Norris has grown from strength to strength and eclipsed teammate Oscar Piastri even more. At the F1 Miami GP, Norris finally had the car capable of winning, and the driver managed the race perfectly and beat Max Verstappen.

In the process, he picked up his first F1 win and admitted it was a sigh of relief for himself as well. Talking to OE24, Helmut Marko was questioned why Max Verstappen felt very happy watching Lando Norris win his first race. According to Marko, it came down to the camaraderie that the two drivers enjoy off-track. The Austrian did concede that the win made Norris even more dangerous now. He said:

"Max maintains a very friendly relationship with Norris. He often takes him with him on planes, and they often meet up for SIM racing. Max seems to be able to learn something from Norris while partying. But now it is feared that Lando will become even more dangerous to him on the track. Because the pressure is off now."

Lando Norris would not have beaten Max Verstappen if not for the safety car

Helmut Marko also felt that Lando Norris would have found it hard to win the race if not for the safety car intervention. The late race safety car was instrumental in giving Norris track position over Max Verstappen and from that point onwards, aided by the fresher tires, Norris could just pull away from Max.

If there was no safety car, Norris would have pitted and come out behind 3-4 cars, which would have made the progress tough for him. Talking about the safety car and its impact, Marko claimed,

" Norris would have had a hard time closing the gap behind Max, and overtaking in Miami is very difficult."

With McLaren's upgrade, the team seems to have closed the gap to the front of the grid. Whether that results in Lando Norris mounting a challenge against Max Verstappen in the title battle is something that we'll have to see in the coming races.