Lando Norris Berates Max Verstappen’s Success to Regain Zak Brown’s Lost Trust

Earning trust and respect requires years of consistent effort, yet it can be shattered with a few words. And similar to the adage, Lando Norris appears to have taken actions over recent months that eroded McLaren CEO Zak Brown‘s trust in him. Consequently, Brown has shown confidence in Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri, which might have deeply affected the Belgian-British driver. In an effort to regain the team CEO’s trust, Norris has resorted to questioning his best friend Max Verstappen’s success. So how the two events have remained interconnected?

Max Verstappen‘s exceptional performance this season, coupled with strong teamwork with his Red Bull Racing teammate, has resulted in a winning streak for their team. While rival teams have struggled to compete against them, the dynamics within the team have potentially deterred other drivers from considering a move there. To illustrate this very aspect, Lando Norris is actively seeking to gain Zak Brown’s trust, as Brown now contemplates a different world champion contender.

Lando Norris discovers a method to rebuild trust

At the Italian GP, Oscar Piastri managed to surpass Lando Norris in qualifying, despite consistently being outperformed by the Belgian-British driver previously. While Norris still maintains an advantage over Piastri, the Australian driver has narrowed the gap, outqualifying Norris twice more. This has aligned with the desires of the team’s CEO, Zak Brown, who not only praises the Formula 2 champion but also has full confidence that Piastri will become a future world champion.

Brown’s statement has seemingly shifted his trust more towards the Australian driver. However, in his efforts to regain Brown’s trust, Norris has taken a step that he may later come to regret. During a conversation with Race Fans, as quoted by Motorsport-Total, Norris criticized Max Verstappen’s success by highlighting the internal dynamics within the Red Bull team.

In his words, the British-Belgian driver initially praised Ferrari and Mercedes for being tight however he later added the intrigue, “Ferrari has basically always been tight, Mercedes has basically always been tight, there’s always a lot going on at Red Bull,” Finally stating the woking based squad a good place by all means Norris tried to sugarcoat things to regain the trust back as he said, “ But McLaren has always proven to be the best option, and that’s why I’m still here.”

READ MORE: Lando Norris’ Attempt to Make Peace With Oscar Piastri Turns Daniel Ricciardo Into a Punching Bag 

Due to his excessively critical remarks about McLaren, Norris appears to have created a rift between himself and the team. Following Zak Brown’s loss of faith in the British driver, it’s now the team’s principal who has held the 23-year-old accountable for the humiliation.

After Zak Brown Andrea Stella join forces with Oscar Piastri

Following a successful outing at the Belgian GP, the McLaren team continued to build momentum during the Monza Qualifying session, with their drivers securing the seventh and ninth positions on the grid. However, an unfortunate incident involving contact with Lewis Hamilton resulted in Oscar Piastri losing his chance for points. However apart from this, the incident of Piastri’s collision with Norris was much more of a discussion.

Notably, after Piastri has made it clear that he intends to seek retribution for the incident, Andrea Stella now has sided with the Australian driver, indirectly implicating Norris for the incident’s embarrassing outcome. According to a statement quoted by Motorsport Italy, the Italian engineer remarked, ” We could have scored another two points while we are out with one car. Our goal is to score points with both cars.” 

He added, “To be honest we are surprised that we were able to fight, we were faster than Williams. We didn’t have the speed to overtake. I was ready to see more tire degradation, but we had good wear. There are many positive aspects from this match and what we paid the most for is the result, because we should have had two more points,” 

Given the current situation, Norris has been fulfilling the team’s requirements, but his recent remarks and the dramatic incident at the Italian GP have prompted doubts about retaining trust in him. Despite his attempts to rebuild trust through these statements, it remains to be seen whether the team will opt to place faith in the British-Belgian driver.

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