Norris: Las Vegas GP unlikely to be 'another Singapore' for Red Bull

Lando Norris believes that it’s unlikely that this weekend’s Las Vegas GP will turn into “another Singapore-type thing” for Red Bull, meaning a stumbling block for the championship winning team.

Red Bull’s incredible supremacy this season has led to the Milton Keynes-based outfit winning 19 of the 20 races held to date, with Max Verstappen claiming 17 of those wins and sealing his third world title along the way.

The bulls’ single defeat occurred last September on the streets of Singapore where its RB19 was oddly outpaced all weekend by its usual rivals, and especially by Ferrari, with Carlos Sainz taking top spoils on race day.

While also a street circuit, Las Vegas’ low downforce layout appears on paper closer to Monza than to Singapore’s Marina Bay.

Norris therefore doubts that Red Bull’s unwavering dominance will take another hit in Sin City.

• Read also: Norris teases 'plenty more' to come from McLaren

“If you look back to Monza, he was way quicker than everyone, pretty much,” said the McLaren charger.

“It could be another Singapore-type thing, but unlikely. I don’t know. There’s just a lot of guessing and there’s no point guessing.”

As for McLaren’s own chances of success in Vegas, Norris wouldn’t go all-in on such a prospect.

“There’s always the chances and possibilities – small chance of rain, things like that, maybe play into your hands at certain points,” he said. “But it can go any way.”

Asked if Red Bull could stumble once again this weekend, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso replied that he “didn’t think so” while the Spaniard also wasn’t inclined to place all his chips on a win by Team Silverstone.

“It would be nice to win a race, especially the first race in a place like this one, but I think it’s unlikely that happens,” Alonso said.
“I don’t think that this track really is one of our favourites with our package. So I guess it’s going to be difficult.”

For his part, Sergio Perez is reserving his judgement on Red Bull’s prospects until the action kicks off in earnest given the many unknowns that teams are facing for this weekend’s Vegas premiere.

“I think it’s a place that we have no idea how it’s going to be,” said Perez

“It’s so different to the rest of the year, because, first of all, the temperatures. It’s all about keeping the tyres in the window, keeping them warm. I think that’s going to be the challenge.

“It’s going to be very different to anything else that we’ve done this year. I don’t think we know how strong we’re going to be, so it will be an interesting one.”

It has been suggested that Las Vegas’ circuit has similarities with Baku where Perez enjoyed his most recent win with Red Bull. But the Mexican sees no reason to believe that this will give him any sort of edge.

“Every weekend, even if we go now to Baku, things are different,” he explained. “Things have changed. It’s how the years evolve in Formula 1.

“I feel like we are in a good moment as a group, as a team. We haven’t been able to put the result all together in the last few weekends, but I believe that we are on our way and we are getting a lot closer to our performances from earlier in the season.”

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