The McLaren driver acknowledged he has had a year of going “toe-to-toe” against “one of the best in the world”, but expanded on why he feels all the better for it as he gears up for a potential title challenge in the 2025 campaign.
Norris and Verstappen had multiple close moments throughout the 2024 season, but after both running off track in Austin – for which Norris believes either both or neither of them should have received a penalty – it was in Mexico City the following week where Verstappen received two 10-second penalties for his racing against the McLaren driver.
First, for forcing Norris off-track when he looked to overtake around the outside at Turn 4, before the McLaren driver came back onto the track ahead of his title rival.
A few corners later, Verstappen sent his car up the inside of Norris but could not slow down in time to stay on track, getting another 10-second time penalty in the process for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
While Verstappen wrapped up his fourth consecutive title in Las Vegas, Norris spoke confidently about being able to take the fight to his friend and rival next season, highlighting that incident in Mexico as the “turning point” for the Dutchman’s potential fallibility.
“Honestly, it’s probably the harder moments, which are the ones you learn the most, so it’s kind of true what people say,” Norris told media including PlanetF1.com when asked if his victory in Abu Dhabi helped his self-belief heading into 2025.
“Those harder times, my battles with Max, that kind of thing, certain other cases throughout the season.
“If I go back to Austria and Silverstone, there are just some along the way and some have different reasons, but none of them are necessarily ones which have made me doubt myself any more.
“This season’s been my best season from a performance [standpoint] personally, was it good enough? Probably it wasn’t, no.
“But when you look at my own performance, and my qualifying performances, for instance, they’ve been almost twice as good as what I was last year – especially comparing to the other guys in exactly the same car.
“Obviously lost out on a few things, and there were maybe three starts this year which lost me one or two positions at times – but they were positions quite often just to Max.
“None of them, when I look back on them, made me feel like I’ve not got what it takes.
“You know, those only moments came when it was directly against Max. You know, going up against Max in any state is always going to be tricky, and no-one has a nice time racing Max.
“I think Mexico was a bit of a turning point when it was proved that not everything he does is perfect.
“I think if we all go back to Austin and go back to Turn 12, [the] majority of almost everyone on the grid, as drivers and also externally, disagreed with the fact I got a penalty. We either both shouldn’t have got one, or we both should have got one.
“So I think it’s little cases along the way, but certainly from a pace point of view, of not doubting myself this year, and I think I’ve definitely given myself more faith.
“It was more just that toe-to-toe fight with one of the best in the world. And the thing is, what you don’t see on the outside are some of those moments where, if I did certain things, we would have crashed.
“People on the outside have no idea on what it takes, and those moments where you accept losing a battle, and that is the case, and that was because of where we were in the first six, seven races of the year.
“We lost too many points, and I was just in that position where I couldn’t gain as much as what I needed to and wanted to, but I’m not using any of these as excuses.
“I’m saying I didn’t have what it took this season to fight against Max and deliver what I needed to deliver.
“But it certainly gave me the feeling of, ‘okay, if I improve this little bit here, this little bit here,’ for the first time, I have confidence in saying I’ve definitely got what it takes.”
