Verstappen gets closer, but Norris remains unfazed as 'nothing's changed'

14:07, 27 Nov

byKada Sarkozi

Lando Norris treated Max Verstappen as a threat all year long, therefore his approach will not change heading into the final rounds of the 2025 season.

"We've treated him as a threat the whole year, even when he was a few more points behind."

- Lando Norris

Talking to GPblog in Qatar, the championship leader explained that the team always considers Verstappen a threat.

He began: "We've treated him as a threat the whole year, even when he was a few more points behind. Every briefing we had before every race, we always have our little team meetings, every single race we treat him as a threat, because we know what he's capable of, we know what Red Bull is capable of.

"Therefore nothing changes now because he's still the threat, he's always been through the whole year. Nothing changes from anyone's side you know from engineers, mechanics, myself, we treat it very normally.

"There's no point trying to treat it any differently because we've been doing a good job and I'm very happy with the job we've all been doing, we know what areas we need to do better, we know what things we need to improve on this year, next year, all the standard stuff. I really try and not treat it any differently because there's no point."

Norris leads Piastri and Verstappen by 24 points - Photo: Race Pictures

Norris underlined his lead remains unchanged

After both Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified from the Las Vegas GP, Verstappen gained 25 points on both of his rivals.

The Dutchman is now level on points with Piastri and trails Norris by 24 points, which means the Briton has the same gap to his closest chaser as he did in the United States.

He explained: "The gap before was 24 and it's still 24. My gap in the lead is the same. Nothing needs to change.

"I think we were still quick last weekend. We would have been even quicker without the issues.

"I think we know Red Bull have just been quick lately. So we expect them to be quicker this weekend. We expect them to be good next weekend.

"But there's nothing that needs to change from anyone's side. And like I said, we treated him and Red Bull as a great team and a great competitor the whole season. And that just continues now. So no, nothing, nothing changes for all of us," Norris concluded.

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