Norris: It can go my way, it can go Verstappen's way

Norris comes to Austin for the 2024 US Grand Prix having won the previous race in Singapore in dominant fashion, reducing the gap to championship leader and rival Verstappen to 52 points.

Facing the media in Austin, Norris was asked whether he felt the same confidence this weekend as was the case back in Singapore.

"Yeah, I think so – probably more, I would say," he responded. "If you look at where we were last year here relative with the car that we had, comparing to where we were in Singapore, I think this was a better weekend for us.

"We led the first half of the race – I know some things were mixed up because of different scenarios but it was a good weekend.

"Some things have changed on this track with the new surface, and some of the layout’s changed a little bit, so [there are] always questions for us to go and answer. But with how we performed last year, with how we’re performing over the last three, four, five races, I think we’re confident everywhere that we should be towards the top," the Briton explained.

The fact that the Circuit of The Americas has been resurfaced as well as the weekend being a Sprint format makes matters tricky for the teams, who will have only one practice session to set their cars up before going into Sprint qualifying.

But Norris is not putting much thought into this; he added: "I have no idea if it’s going to be a good thing or a bad thing – I don’t think anyone does. I think we probably all treat it as opportunities until we know something different.

"But it’s also a Sprint race where many things can happen and it’s difficult to sometimes hit the ground running. We saw that last year with people not getting their set-ups right and things like that.

"Again certain things have changed from what happened last year and that scenario. I think everyone’s going to see these races as opportunities, and we do too so that’s a good thing," he maintained.

Norris has six F1 weekends to reel in Verstappen and needs to outscore him by an average of nine points per weekend in order to beat him to the title.

Asked whether the weekend in Austin will be an indication of things to come, Norris said: "I think we’ve seen it for the last five, six weekends.

"People ask every weekend if this is a weekend that’s going to change something. It can go my way, it can go Max’s way. I keep focused on doing what I’m doing, I’ve been doing a good job.

"I’m happy with how things have gone – I’ve not been happy always with the final result for different reasons, but I’m happy with what we’re doing as a team and how we’re working together.

"I’m confident if we just keep our heads down and keep pushing we can do it – we can close the gap, but it’s not easy and I need more than just me [finishing in] first and Max second.

"But I can’t change that, so I just need to focus on myself and leave the rest to everyone else," the 24-year-old McLaren driver concluded.