Lando Norris can retake the Formula 1 lead from Oscar Piastri in Spain this weekend but the Briton has said the drivers’ championship remains more than just a battle between McLaren teammates.
The two are separated by three points at the top of the standings after eight of 24 races and champions McLaren have set the pace and won six times this year — Piastri with four to Norris’s two.
Norris led for the first time after winning the season-opener in Melbourne before ceding the advantage to Piastri in round five in Saudi Arabia but closed the gap again by winning in Monaco last Sunday.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the four-time world champion, has won twice but is third and 25 points behind Piastri.
“It’s a great feeling to be in the lead of the championship and to have more points than everyone, but it’s not something I look at,” Norris told reporters at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Thursday.
“It’s not something that changes anything I do day to day. It doesn’t change how hard I work or what I try to achieve. I just try to win this weekend and I’ll try and win in Montreal and I’ll try and win in Austria. It’s got nothing to do with what position I am in.
“I think mathematically probably the whole grid can win the championship. I think there’s plenty of opportunities,” he continued.
“Max can still win, I think Ferrari — I expect them to get better into the season.”
Spain is a favourite track for Verstappen, the place where he won for the first time in 2016, and Piastri expected the Dutch driver to go well again on Sunday.
“I don’t think he can be counted out,” the Australian told reporters.
“The gap is not very large at the moment and they’ve genuinely been competitive at a decent number of circuits now.
“Of course there’s been weekends where we’ve been stronger but I think they’ve been developing their car, they’ve been finding more performance. So I think at this point Max is definitely still in the title.”
Verstappen has won the last three Spanish Grands Prix, and four in total, and has been on the podium seven times in a row at the circuit but he was not bigging up his prospects on Thursday.
“For me it doesn’t really feel like a fight, to be honest,” he told reporters. “I just try to do my best, have a bit of fun out there.
“With some races we are really off the pace, which is not enjoyable. But the fighting spirit is still there. That is also never disappearing.”
Formula 1 also has a front wing rule change coming into effect this weekend, with the governing FIA carrying out more stringent stiffness tests.
McLaren say they do not expect to be affected but others are taking a wait and see approach, with Ferrari even speaking of a potential game-changer.
“There are tweaks here and there, but nothing that will change how we have to do it,” said Norris.
