Lando Norris says that McLaren’s slow start to 2024 gave Max Verstappen  a relatively easy season, but that the Dutchman drove perfectly to win a fourth drivers’ championship.

Verstappen finished fifth in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which was enough to secure a fourth consecutive title. Norris says Verstappen has taken advantage of every opportunity this year, whether the Red Bull has been race-winning machinery or not.

“Massive congrats to him, he’s deserved it,” Norris said. “He’s not put a foot wrong, really, the whole year. So that’s strength of his, he has no bad [races], he has no downsides, he has no negatives.

“When he’s had the quickest car, he dominated races. When he’s not in the quickest car, he’s still been just behind us and almost winning the races anyway. So he’s just not had a bad side to him. He’s not had any bad races the whole year. His worst was like a fifth or something. He just drove as Max has always driven, which is perfectly. Can’t fault him anywhere.”

However, Norris believes Red Bull and Verstappen were shown to be fallible once McLaren got up to speed, but rued the opening few rounds when he didn’t have a car capable of fighting for victories.

“Some of it is experience,” he said. “I think he’s still had a relatively easy season. I think if we had a better car at the beginning of the year, we would have been fighting him a lot more, and he would have been a lot more under pressure than he’s ever been.

“I think we put him under pressure. As soon as we did, he made mistakes, and it showed. The team made mistakes. He made some mistakes, but over the course of the season, that’s very few in terms of what he’s done, and that’s what makes him so good.

“He’s not had a bad qualifying. He’s not had a bad race. I think his worst race was probably what Budapest or something? And he still finished what, fifth? So he just gets everything out of the car every time. And that’s always impressive to see. Always things to learn.”