The former F1 team owner puts that down to how the McLaren driver “should have been out of sight” at certain races this year, while title rival Max Verstappen struggled.
Jordan’s podcast co-host, former McLaren and Red Bull driver David Coulthard, was quick to add that this was not a reflection that Norris would never win a title, but the Scot added his belief he is “still maturing” into a “complete grand prix driver.”
Jordan, meanwhile, put forward the argument that the Briton may have shown himself to be “too nice” on track this year, with Verstappen able to limit the damage to his World Championship lead while McLaren held a significant competitive advantage.
The pair were involved in close battles in Austin and Mexico in particular, before Verstappen recovered from 17th on the grid to take victory at Interlagos last time out in what could prove to be the critical blow in this year’s title fight.
“Lando Norris has been brought up by an amazing, lovely, beautiful, caring family. And is there an argument to say that he’s too nice? Yes, possibly,” Jordan explained on a recent episode of the Formula For Success podcast.
“The fact is that Lando Norris will go down in the history books as being one of the most incredibly fastest drivers possibly not to have won a World Championship – and the reason being, he should have been out of sight on several races this year where there is not a chance Max had the car that that he had.”
Coulthard added to Jordan’s assertion by clarifying: “I know you weren’t saying he’ll never be a World Champion, but you’re throwing out there that he might not have all the ingredients to win a World Championship, going toe to toe with the likes of a Max.
“But I actually take the view that McLaren entered this year as part of their rebuilding working their way towards challenging for World Championships, and it came as a bit of a surprise to them when they were in that position, and it’s taken them a little while to adapt and really believe that they can win the Constructors’ Championship and the could win the Drivers’ Championship.
“I think they are almost there in their mind, where they’ve got that attacking mentality that I believe that they’ve had in the past and they’re certainly getting there now.
“But I think maybe Lando is the same. He’s still maturing into this complete grand prix driver.
“He’s got all the speed, we love how open he is – everything is there. I think that he’s still maturing into that person and I believe in Lando.
“But at a certain point he’s got to go: ‘Max, you think I’m going to leave the door open and you can send the car. Well, actually, the door’s closed – and if we crash, we crash.’
“It almost needs to be one of those situations, because you race different drivers in a different way.
“I think Lando is just that one step away from fully understanding how to race his competitors.”
