Exclusive: Lando Norris denies F1 has got boring under Max Verstappen domination

Lando Norris doesn't believe that Max Verstappen's domination of Formula One this season has made it boring and denied any issue with the track limit problems in Austria.

Red Bull have won every single one of the opening eight races of the F1 season, with Verstappen picking up six victories to Sergio Perez's two.

Both the constructors' championship and drivers' title look to already have been sewn up such is their domination, and it doesn't look like ending any time soon.

It led to Lewis Hamilton suggesting that there needs to be a rule change to make sure one team can't dominate for a long period, something Verstappen unsurprisingly didn't agree with.

Speaking exclusively to SPORTbible about the state of F1, McLaren driver Norris believes believes that the domination has been standard over the years.

"From what I know anyway, F1 is on the way up is still growing massively.

"I think it's still getting more and more exciting. I think everyone's closing in on each other more and more.

"I get you have Red Bull and you have Max dominating. But it's kind of almost always been one team that dominates it in a way. It used to be McLaren for a bit, then it was Ferrari for a bit, then it was I was obviously Mercedes. And now it's Red Bull.

"But yeah, I think it's good. I think it's exciting. There's one or two boring races every now but I think is so good. I think there's so the sport's still growing massively."

Verstappen just can't stop winning. Image: Getty

The 23-year-old Brit added that the midfield battles he's been involved with have proved that races don't just need to be exciting at the front.

"I mean, it's from from my side even the last five years. The races in the midfield have always been exciting," he added.

"If that was for a race win I think it'd be mega. Like the race would be different winners every weekend. Always close battles, always good racing.

"But it's almost seems the further up the grid you go like the almost the more worrying it gets, in a way."

"It's still very racy, even between Ferraris and Mercedes and Astons. It's generally good racing it's mainly just Red Bull, who are doing a very good job, you know, just hats off to them, they're doing a better job than everyone else.

"So in a way, I've always been in the packs where it's been exciting.

"It's been tricky. One weekend, we're on top, the next weekend two teams are ahead of us. And then we're in the middle, and then we're three teams back. So I think for us, it's always been exciting.

"Anything further back from like, fourth, back in terms of team, you know, like a eighth place backwards in terms of position is I think it's always been good the last 10 years.

"It's just not been for a race win. But it's always been exciting."

Norris ended up fourth last weekend. Image: Getty

There were farcical scenes last weekend with eight of the 20 drivers on the grid being hit by penalties for regularly breaking track limits.

The British driver's boss Zak Brown said the incident must never happen again, especially with drivers not finding out their position place till much after the race.

Norris though isn't too worried, saying: "This track is a one off track, you know, it's not like we've had this conversation every weekend of the year.

"So it's not like some suddenly everything has to change, people have to just blow things out of proportion, and just change and say everything is 'do this or do that', you know. It's just this type of track, the layout, it provides these kind of opportunities, not in a good way or opportunity, but in a bad way. These kind of things to happen.

"As Formula One drivers, we want certain things. We want to see tarmac then curve then gravel, that's it! You know, that's what we want.

"I mean we'd hate it because you make one little mistake and you're out. But at the same time you get punished for making a mistake. So that's what makes it tough. Now you don't know, you can almost easily go over the limit, then you can come back and if you just did it's like an easier limit to find.

"It depends a little bit but you can't do some of these things because motorbikes race there and other categories and they have different rules so you have to allow this to happen and so it's just it's not as simple as what anyone thinks.

"Even on the outside and it's not as easy as what it looks to stay on the track every lap and drive perfectly because things happen you know. You make mistakes, and the tyres are getting older, every lap the winds changing, the track temperature is changing, the fuel loads coming down, and then there's just human error you know.

"It's tough to be perfect every single lap, doing 150/200/250/300 kph, it's not easy to count a couple of centimetres every single lap.

"I want to say is very much a one circuit specific issue. So therefore, it's just needs to be combated in a different way to maybe some other things.

"But yeah, I was alright!"