Nerves may spoil Norris’ F1 title quest in 2024

A former Red Bull driver predicts that the Formula 1 hierarchy will undergo a formal changing of the guard this weekend at Baku.

Red Bull’s long and dominant grip on the top of the pecking order has been clearly waning over recent weeks and months, with the gap over McLaren in the constructors’ standings down to just 8 points prior to this weekend’s Azerbaijan GP.

"I expect a change of leadership in the constructors’ world championship this weekend," Christian Klien, a former Red Bull driver, told Kurier newspaper.

"For an unpredictable car like the Red Bull now," said the Austrian, "the high speed street circuit with its 90-degree corners without run-off areas is a nightmare."

Klien, who raced for Red Bull prior to the team’s first title-winning successes, admits he has been surprised just how quickly the team lost its edge in 2024.

"Until China in April, everyone believed that they would walk it again," the 41-year-old said. "Now, if they don’t get the problems under control soon, the risk is very big. Because Baku and Singapore are already two difficult tracks for Red Bull."

But while Klien expects McLaren to take over the championship lead on Sunday, he thinks Lando Norris will need "team orders" to have a chance of tracking down Max Verstappen’s much bigger lead in the drivers’ title.

Some believe Norris does not deserve ’number 1’ status over his teammate Oscar Piastri. Giedo van der Garde, who like Klien is also a former F1 driver, thinks Norris might be struggling with excessive nerves now that he’s a consistent frontrunner.

Indeed, Norris even admitted at Monza that he gets so nervous before races that he can "barely eat or drink".

"Just because of nerves and just because of pressure," the Briton confessed. "If you do one thing - brake a metre too late or turn in with the wrong timing or whatever it is - then it’s finished, game over. And the knowledge of that just puts you under a very tense feeling."

Van der Garde is unimpressed with the 24-year-old’s struggle.

"After so many years, I can’t understand that anymore," the Dutchman told DRS De Race Show. "Surely he knows what he has to do.

"You know your starting position, you know how to start. You have to get in there and do your thing," van der Garde said. "You have to be focused.

"And it seems to me that the more you do this, the more experience you have and the less nervous you should be getting," said the 39-year-old, who raced for the defunct Caterham team in 2013.

"So maybe he’s making the small mistakes we’re seeing because he’s so nervous. Because at the end of the race he’s super sharp and incredibly fast. Maybe it’s because of the nerves, yes."

Nonetheless, van der Garde is still tipping Norris to win at Baku, followed by Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

"But I have to admit, it’s so hard to predict now," he warned. "So I really don’t know who’s going to win this weekend," van der Garde smiled.

"It’s actually really exciting. Every time you go to a circuit and you think ’This could be a track for this driver or that driver’, you now start to realise that Ferrari can win, McLaren can win, Mercedes can win, Red Bull can win."