Lando Norris doubts he'll challenge Verstappen, Leclerc for F1 title anytime soon

Few would doubt his talent, but Lando Norris believes he is still some way off from competing for a Formula 1 World Championship.

It is easy to think of Norris as a veteran of the F1 grid, but at 23, only one driver was younger than him on the grid in 2022.

Like his junior career was, every year of Norris' four seasons in the pinnacle of motorsport has been an improvement on the last.

In 2019, he scored his first points. In 2020, he stood atop the podium for the first time. And in 2021, he improved that tally to four, including a career-high P2 at Monza.

But while 2022 saw him stagnate with just a single podium and 38 points fewer than he acquired the year previous, few would argue that was down to his ability.

Unlikely to win gold

The Brit has been occupying the 'best of the rest' category for a while now, picking up six seventh-place finishes in 2022, but while some say a title battle is soon on the horizon, Norris himself is a little more hesitant.

"With everything I've learned, maybe I could win a race, but I'm unlikely to win a championship until possibly that time," he told GQ magazine of his contract end-date in 2025.

"I know I need to be at the absolute top of my game in those years."

The McLaren MCL36 proved a difficult car to understand and one that lacked the speed of its predecessor. Such was the fall in form that it had some questioning whether Norris was right to tie himself down to the Woking outfit for so long.

Fighting at the top

Norris has never shown any regret, but with his colleagues such as Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Max Verstappen, all of which are no more than two years older than the McLaren man, winning races and world titles, it will not be long before the self-confessed "perfectionist" wants to