Norris delivers ‘doesn’t have a clue’ retaliation to blunt Verstappen title claim

Lando Norris delivered an emphatic comeback to Max Verstappen, who had claimed that had he been in the McLaren MCL39, he would have secured his fifth world championship a long time ago.

Norris stated his respect for title rival Verstappen, but also claimed that while Verstappen “has a good clue about a lot of things”, there are “also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about.” Norris claimed that an “aggressive nature” is the Red Bull way, as is “talking nonsense a lot of the time.”

Lando Norris claps back at Max Verstappen

The penultimate round of F1 2025 in Qatar is underway. Oscar Piastri won the Sprint, with McLaren teammate and championship leader Norris crossing the line third.

That allowed Piastri to trim his deficit to Norris slightly to 22 points, but Norris was able to move one point further clear of the resurgent Max Verstappen, putting 25 points between them.

Verstappen has made the podium at every round since the summer break, a run which has included four grand prix wins, which has brought him back into a title fight which was shaping up as a McLaren-exclusive battle.

Ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, Verstappen suggested that “other people’s failures” is the reason why he is still a title contender, in a cheeky dig at McLaren.

“If we would have been in the position of how dominant of a car, well, [McLaren] had, let’s say it like that, [the] championship would have been over a long time ago,” Verstappen claimed to Formula 1.com.

Those comments were brought up to Norris following the Sprint, and his response was emphatic.

“Max is very welcome to say everything he wants, to be honest,” Norris began.

“He’s kind of earned the right, you know, he’s won four world championships. I have a lot of respect, and I think that gives anyone a lot of credit in general. He’s achieved an incredible amount more than anyone generally dreams of achieving.

“So, Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things. But, there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about.

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“But this is also Red Bull’s way of going about things is this kind of aggressive nature and, yeah, just talking nonsense a lot of the time.

“So it depends if you want to listen to it and talk about it, like you love to, or, you do what we do as a team, which is just kind of keep our heads down, keep focused.

“So, maybe he would have done [win the title], but he hasn’t so far, and he’s trying.”

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