Norris shrugs off ‘water in the tyres’ jibe as Verstappen drags Red Bull back into the fight
Lando Norris isn’t entertaining the noise. Asked about Red Bull’s cheeky suggestion that McLaren might be “putting water in the tyres,” the Brit laughed it away and went straight to the point: don’t act surprised that Red Bull are quick again.
Because whatever the mid-season maths said about Max Verstappen’s deficit, the three-time champion has just reminded everyone what happens when the RB21 gets a sniff of form. Wins from pole in Monza and Baku have sliced a sizeable chunk from Oscar Piastri’s lead, and turned what looked like a slow fade into a late-season hunt.
“It’s not often that they’re slow, so people need to stop being so surprised that they’re quick,” Norris said after Azerbaijan. “Max was winning races already at the beginning of the year. The whole season they’ve been quick and the Red Bull’s been good. They’ve brought some upgrades to Monza, which seemed to have helped them even more. So I’m not surprised.”
A few weeks ago Verstappen’s title bid looked like a long shot. He’d won just twice before the summer break and was buried far enough behind Piastri for most to call it done. After the Dutch Grand Prix, the gap to the lead swelled to 104 points. Two races later, it’s 69. He’s taken 35 points out of Piastri’s cushion in a fortnight, and Norris’ hold on second isn’t what it was either — trimmed from 91 points to 44. With seven to go, momentum has changed hands.
Norris, for his part, has been consistent all year in saying McLaren’s advantage wasn’t the gulf it appeared on certain Sundays. Red Bull were close, occasionally messy, but never lost. Monza’s low-drag test and Baku’s traction-and-top-speed special brought that into sharp focus, and McLaren blinked.
“We struggled a bit here,” Norris admitted. “Monza clearly we were not quick enough. We’ve made improvements but things where the Red Bull has been so good and dominant in the past, they still have and we don’t. Today when I was following the Red Bull there were clearly some areas where they were at another level to us. We need to understand why.”
The subtext is obvious: Red Bull’s upgrade works, and McLaren need answers on circuits that punish you for drag and reward clean aero efficiency. In traffic, Norris could see the difference — exits, straights, and those low-speed, high-energy corners where the RB has often looked glued.
None of that means the standings suddenly favor Verstappen. He knows the hill he’s climbing. “I don’t rely on hope,” he said, matter-of-fact as ever. “It’s seven rounds left. Sixty-nine points is a lot. So I personally don’t think about it. I just go race by race, what I have been doing basically the whole season — just trying to do the best we can, try to score the most points that we can. And then after Abu Dhabi, we’ll know.”
That’s the Verstappen way: strip it down to execution. If Red Bull keep qualifying up front and the car keeps its tyres in shape on Sundays, the arithmetic takes care of itself. If not, Piastri — calm, efficient, and leading a world championship for the first time — will fancy his chances of managing the run-in. And somewhere in the middle is Norris, who knows McLaren’s biggest swing came when they out-developed the field early; now it’s about protecting that work and finding speed on the styles of track that still suit Red Bull a fraction more.
The paddock will argue about fine margins and conspiracies, because that’s what the paddock does. Norris, to his credit, isn’t biting. He’s giving Red Bull their due, acknowledging where McLaren fell short, and getting on with the job.
The story of the season isn’t the meme about water in tyres. It’s the old F1 truism that form is circuit-dependent, development never sleeps, and momentum can turn on a pair of weekends. Red Bull just turned it. Now we find out if McLaren — and a title-leading Piastri — can turn it back.
