Norris hopes title battle with Verstappen goes down to the wire

Six races remain in the 2024 F1 season, and three of those races will be run under the Sprint format, which means Norris still has a mathematical chance to catch Verstappen in the drivers' championship.

However, the McLaren driver is aware it will take a monumental effort from him and his team to beat his Red Bull Racing counterpart, who will not take it lying down.

Norris won the last race, the Singapore Grand Prix, and he insists he will have to repeat that performance at every race from now till the end of the season if he is to stand a chance to beat Verstappen.

Norris told Sky Sports F1 after Singapore: "This is what I've got to do; this is what I need; this is what we need to do as a team. We've executed things perfectly as a team.

"But we need to do it at every race until the end of the year if I want to have a chance to get Max," he pointed out. "We're working hard, and if I keep doing what I've done this weekend, then it's definitely possible."

The 2021 F1 season saw the F1 drivers' title battle between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton go down to the wire and was only settled in the final race.

Asked whether this could be the case in 2024, Norris responded: "I hope so. I still have a lot of points I've got to catch up, and it's not going to be easy to do it.

"It's against Red Bull and it's against Max, the most dominant pairing you've ever seen in Formula 1, from last year. And that's not necessarily changed in terms of... It's the same team, and it's the same driver. So, I have some of the toughest competition that Formula 1 has ever seen in the sport.

"We are doing a better job as a team right now because my car, our car is quicker than theirs," he went on. "But that's just credit to the team doing an amazing job and being smarter and doing cooler things and creating mini-DRS flaps and stuff.

"I'm working my heart out; I'm working my butt off, to try and make sure that happens. He's trying to make sure it doesn't happen. So we'll have to wait and find out," Norris concluded.

Norris has won three races so far in 2024, while Verstappen has seven wins to his name. The latter, however, has failed to visit the top step of the F1 podium since the Spanish GP back in June.