Lewis Hamilton hopes Formula 1’s 2024 title battle “goes down to the wire” but says Lando Norris will need “some fortune” to chase down Max Verstappen.
McLaren’s Norris won the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend to reduce Verstappen’s lead at the top of the standings to 70 points, with the Red Bull driver’s winless streak extended to five races.
The dominant nature of Norris’ win in Zandvoort with his upgraded MCL38 has established McLaren as the car to beat going into the final nine races of the season, starting with this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
Speaking at Monza on Thursday, seven-time world champion Hamilton said: “There’s a lot of points on the table so I think it’s definitely not impossible.
“I think ultimately Max probably only needs to finish second every race to win, at this point. And he [Norris] would have to win every single race, and still, that wouldn’t be enough.
“There’ll need to be some fortune in it.
“I hope that it goes down to the wire because that will be great for the fans.
While doubt remains over how much pressure Norris can apply to Verstappen, McLaren are already within striking range of Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship.
The reigning champions’ lead has been reduced to 30 points, with the consistency of Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri enabling McLaren to take advantage of Sergio Perez’s struggles in the second Red Bull.
McLaren haven’t won a constructors’ title since 1998, but did finish top of the standings in 2007 – with the pairing of Hamilton and Fernando Alonso – before being disqualified over the ‘spygate’ scandal.
Hamilton, who has won two races this season for Mercedes, added: “I do think, and what’s really exciting, I think there’s a real chance that McLaren could win the constructors’ title.
“That’s really, really exciting because obviously, there when we did win the last constructors’.
“Obviously, it got taken away from us but we won it in terms of performance that year. And they’ve not won since, so I think that could be really exciting, not only for them but also for the sport.”
Norris is refusing to engage in talk of a title battle, insisting he will continue to take a race-by-race approach until the end of the season.
The 24-year-old is not expecting a repeat of his dominance in Zandvoort but believes McLaren will still be in the mix at Monza, which he chose to compare the similarly low downforce layout of Spa, which hosted the Belgian Grand Prix in July.
Norris said: “If you kind of compare it [Monza] a little bit more to Spa probably, I think we were still pretty good there.
“Obviously, Red Bull were very quick there, but Red Bull have always been very good at Spa, specifically.
“Here it’s a bit of a question mark. It was probably one of our worst races last year, mainly because I just sat behind Alex [Albon] the whole race, but it was genuinely one of our trickier races that we did last year.
“We’re not expecting to be probably as good as last weekend, that’s for sure. We always knew we were going to be very good in Zandvoort.
“But it’s a weekend where we’re expecting good competition with all of our competitors.”
Friday August 30
8.30am: F3 Practice
9.55am: F2 Practice
12pm: Italian GP Practice One (session starts 12.30am)
1.55pm: F3 Qualifying
2.50pm: F2 Qualifying
3.45pm: Italian GP Practice Two (session starts 4pm)
5.15pm: The F1 Show
Saturday August 31
8.25am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Italian GP Practice Three (session starts 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Italian GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: ITALIAN GP QUALIFYING*
5pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday September 1
7:30am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
11am: Porsche Supercup
12:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Italian GP build-up
2pm: The ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag: Italian GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook
