How Lando Norris made secret Las Vegas discovery

Lando Norris may have found the key to unlocked greater pace around the Las Vegas Strip circuit in the latter stages of last year’s race.

The Vegas streets have proved tough for McLaren, which is yet to boast a podium result in the first two years of the event.

Lando Norris experiment revealed Las Vegas secret

McLaren had stamped its authority on the F1 pack in the latter stages of F1 2024, though Las Vegas proved something of an outlier.

The Woking squad struggled to get its car working on the low-grip tarmac as George Russell led a Mercedes one-two from then teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Norris was the first of the papaya machines home in sixth, 43 seconds down on Russell and one spot up from teammate Oscar Piastri.

Such were the team’s struggles that, with little to lose in a race that saw Max Verstappen seal his fourth world championship, Norris began to experiment on track.

“Because we were so bad, I just ended up trying as much stuff as I could,” Norris said of his actions in his final stint a year ago.

“It was more just… Actually, I’m not gonna say. I’m fighting for a lot, so I want to reveal the least amount possible!

“You just get to a point where you try a lot,” he added.

“It’s probably not too difficult for people to figure out; it’s a long race, a lot of laps, and we were struggling consistently with the same thing.

“So I was just experimenting with a lot; experimenting with my driving, with driving styles, approaches to the car – which is not always easy – trying to figure out how the car likes to get driven.”

Clearly, the Brit found something as, following his final stop, his pace improved.

It was a process of trial and error, with Norris noting that techniques and approaches can change from week to week, track to track.

“If you look at the race trace now, you can quite easily see the final stint from me was a lot more in line with Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes,” the championship leader explained.

“I think Lewis’s last stint last year was pretty incredible, so we were still quite a long way off what Mercedes was, but we looked more raceable.

“It was just too little, too late, and so I think we’ve learned from that.

“Doesn’t mean this year is going to be mega, but it’s certainly given us a direction to go in.

“It’s more experimenting with different things; I’m not going to tell you [what I found], you can try to figure it out.”

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This weekend also marks Norris’s 150th grand prix, all of which have been with McLaren, a feat that sees him equal David Coulthard as the most-capped driver in the squad’s history.

“It’s a big number, match DC for races with McLaren as well,” Norris said.

“That’s something I’m pretty proud of. This is quite an achievement.

“But year, 150 [races] in F1, like, this is my dream since I was a kid.

“I still remember Australia 2019, I still remember being there on the grid there, and the lights going on and everything – didn’t feel that long ago!”

Norris heads into the Las Vegas Grand Prix with a 34-point buffer to teammate Oscar Piastri at the head of the championship.

While he can’t wrap it up this weekend, he can bump Max Verstappen out of contention ahead of the penultimate round of the season in Qatar next weekend.

The Dutchman is 49 points down on Norris, with a maximum of 58 available beyond this event.

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