Verstappen and Red Bull have maintained their commanding performance, a trend that began in the latter half of 2022. The Dutch driver secured victories in the first two races of the 2024 season comfortably from pole position. However, his run was cut short in the Australian Grand Prix due to a braking issue, leading to an early retirement.
Looking ahead, despite the remaining year until 2026, when Formula 1 will transition to significantly different cars and power units, Norris remains skeptical about the chances for other teams to bridge the gap. He expressed his belief that substantial changes are unlikely until the 2026 shift.
“No, I think for things to really shake up, you need to wait until 2026,” Norris remarked. “I think that could potentially be a big shake-up for every team, including the power units probably being one of the biggest things.
“Now there’s not really anything between the power units between teams, but a lot more between cars. I expect Red Bull, being the team that they are, to always carry an advantage because they’re ahead.”
Norris added that while McLaren has made significant strides compared to the previous year, even those improvements haven’t closed the gap significantly enough.
“They’re just as smart, smarter in many ways, that if they do just as good of a job as any other team, they should always carry the advantage that they have, but you do hope that they start to run out of good ideas,” the Briton explained.
“I think every team is catching up. Even if you look at our 12 months of progress from last year, we’ve been the team who have developed the most and we’re the best developing team over the last 12 months.
“So, when you look at it from that perspective, I think we can be very happy with the job that we’re doing. But it’s not enough and it’s not close enough to challenge them.”
