McLaren teammates in battle for F1 title entering Las Vegas Grand Prix

McLaren’s Lando Norris will make his 150th career Formula One start in Saturday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.

From his first start in Australia in 2019, Norris said the “one race at a time” approach has helped him stay grounded.

That mindset could be beneficial with Norris in a championship battle with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

The third annual Las Vegas Grand Prix begins with two practice sessions at 4:30 and 8 p.m. Thursday for the first on-track action around the 17-turn, 3.853-mile course on the Las Vegas Strip.

There’s another practice session at 4:30 p.m. Friday before qualifying later at 8 p.m. The 50-lap Las Vegas Grand Prix is 8 p.m. Saturday.

Norris (390 points) and Piastri (366) have been in a season-long battle at the top of the standings. Piastri led for most of the year, but Norris took the lead after winning the last two races in Mexico City (Oct. 26) and Brazil (Nov. 9).

“It’s been a good few races recently and it’s hard at times when you’re fighting and you’re in the position that we’re in at the moment as a team between Oscar and myself to sometimes step back and realize what you’re doing,” Norris said at a Wednesday news conference.

“You’re so just in the moment, in the headspace of, ‘What can I do next time out, what can I do in practice, (qualifying), the race?’ You don’t often step back and go, ‘I’m in Formula One. I’m fighting for the championship. I’m traveling the world,’” Norris added. “You forget those things sometimes, just because your mind is so buried in terms of what you’re trying to achieve.”

Four-time defending F1 drivers champion Max Verstappen is 49 points back in third (341) and not out of the race. Norris is seeking his first drivers championship and has never held the lead this late in a season.

‘We want the best for the team’

It’s not often that two drivers from the same F1 team have dominated the way Norris and Piastri have.

Both drivers are tied for the series lead with seven wins each. That helped McLaren wrap up its second straight constructors title at the Singapore Grand Prix on Oct. 5.

Norris said even with the championship fight intensifying with three races left in the season, it hasn’t changed his relationship with Piastri.

“We both have a lot of respect for one another and we both understand the position that we’re in,” Norris said. “We’re here, we work for McLaren, we want the best for the team.”

If there is one difference in the Norris-Piastri relationship, the duo is partaking in fewer social media videos for the team.

“The reason you see less videos is because we ask to do less videos,” Norris said with a grin. “We’re racing drivers, we want to come and drive, not make videos.”

‘Expectations are still high’

If Norris wants to get a step closer to his first world title, or if Piastri wants to cut at the deficit, both drivers have to overcome McLaren’s struggles in Las Vegas.

Norris finished sixth in last year’s race. He suffered an accident on the second lap in 2023 and didn’t finish. Piastri was 10th in 2023 and seventh last year.

The weather Thursday could be a wild card. Temperatures are expected to be in the mid-50s for the first practice earlier in the evening. There is a chance of rain, with temperatures in the upper-40s for the second practice later.

“From the last two years, it’s certainly the hardest race of the year we’ve had,” Norris said. “My expectations are not the same level as Mexico or Brazil, where we’ve been performing well for a good amount of years.”

But Norris is keeping a positive outlook, pointing out that McLaren has improved at other tracks it has struggled at in the past.

“I’m coming in with more confidence than in previous years, but not the same amount of confidence going into the past few races,” Norris said. “You never know. Expectations are still high. I’m going here to win, but it’s going to be trickier for sure than the last couple (races).”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.