Lando Norris: man on a mission in 2025

After winning the constructor’s title in 2024, there is no denying McLaren moves forth into 2025 as favorites to wrap up both championships. Considering Lando Norris has beaten his teammate Oscar Piastri in two consecutive seasons, it would be safe to say that Norris will be the driver to bear in 2025. With a taste of what it takes to fight for a championship, Lando seems confident he possesses the qualities needed to become a Formula 1 world champion. However, with the 25-year-old Briton being a 4-time Grand Prix winner, his competition in the likes of 4-time champion Max Verstappen, 7-time champion Lewis Hamilton, 8-time Grand Prix winner Charles Leclerc, and even his own teammate and multiple Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri will be tough to beat.

Norris on the podium after winning the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix, retrieved from motorsportweek.com.

Huge talent and fast learning

Norris is no stranger when it comes to fierce fights for victories and titles. Having won the Formula 3 title in 2017 and showcasing great performances in his season long battle with George Russell in Formula 2 the year after, Norris sure stood out as one to watch in his debut season in Formula 1 with McLaren in 2019. As Norris partnered Carlos Sainz at McLaren in his rookie season, the papaya team was on the rise. Coming off a few tough seasons with Honda as engine supplier, their new partnership with the French Renault team delivered welcome reliability to the car. Norris and Sainz brought the McLaren Renault into fourth place in the championship, with Norris being a clear second driver to his Spanish teammate. 2020 would see a huge jump in performance for Norris, acknowledging he had learnt a lot the previous year from his senior teammate, and he nearly matched Sainz' stats that season.

Building up towards the challenge

McLaren would show up at the forefront of the field more frequently throughout the following years, scoring multiple podiums and even a shocking 1-2 finish at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. The assignment of Italian engineer Andrea Stella to the team principal role paid off as he slowly but surely built a championship winning car. This started back in 2022 when the partnership with Renault was substituted for one with Mercedes, a combination that provided Hamilton his first title in 2008. Even though McLaren came out on top in the 2024 constructor championship battle, Norris came nowhere near to posing a challenge to Max Verstappen's driver's title. To be fair, Verstappen did have the best car for the first few races which lead to a big points gap to overcome for Lando. Of course, Verstappen being the more experienced of the two, especially when it comes to championship battles, made it nearly impossible for Norris to ever get within touching distance. Sure, Norris was not perfect either throughout last year dropping important points here and there that could have brought him closer in the fight. Realistically with Lando getting four victories against Verstappen’s nine, the title was never truly on the cards. During a talk with Lawrence Barretto Norris reflected on 2024: “I kind of learned the hard way … as much as there was good things, there was also the negatives - hard things.” He continued by looking ahead towards the upcoming season “I want to make sure I am ready to go against Max, or whoever I am racing this year.”.

Max Verstappen congratulating his friend Lando Norris after claiming his first Grand Prix victory in Miami 2024, retrieved from autosport.com.

Looking ahead: posing a championship challenge

Looking further ahead, Norris’ 2025 challenger at this point in time seems to add to that self-confidence of him. After an early shakedown test in the MCL39 at the Silverstone Circuit Norris told the press “I think every single piece on the car has been worked on and improved." Such statements usually do not come easy, so we can be assured that McLaren has a faster car than their championship winning product from last year. Obviously, the other teams would have also made attempts to improve their cars over the winter so the true question is which team shall arrive at the season opener in down under Australia with the quickest car. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri, who is heading into his third season, highlighted to Formula 1 how “The aim this year is to back up the success we had last season”, as Norris mentioned “probably our biggest goal is to start the season well.” As both drivers emphasized how the team has a habit of starting the season quite weak in terms of performance.

Across his six years in the sport, Norris acquired proper experience in racecraft, got a taste of podium champaign on more than one occasion, and since last year has been able to tune his senses the right way for battling world champions. Coming into a strong team as a teenager, Norris’ career so far resembles that of Max Verstappen ever so slightly. Both drivers are incredibly loyal to their team, the engineers trust the drivers and respectively, the drivers answer the hard work with stellar performances. Much like Norris, Verstappen too, had to learn the hard way how to calculate risks throughout his early seasons. In doing so, clashing with the likes of Hamilton and Vettel on more than one occasion. With four titles in a row, in which his first and last included a title fight into the last few rounds, Verstappen knows how to approach these battles by now. Lando sure had already proven to master quick learning in his first years at McLaren, so, the remaining question is, when will Lando learn? Or might he have already learned enough last year?

Pit stop practice for Norris and his engineers at the Silverstone shakedown last week, retrieved from Formula 1.

Time will tell, as winter testing is around the corner which will give off an early indication of which cars perform best. Even though Red Bull found ever increasing struggles last season, there is no reason to count them out for a title fight this year. Ferrari too is a team on the rise with an extremely exciting driver pairing for 2025, so the Prancing Horses will be hoping to mingle in the fight up front. Norris perhaps might also have to check his mirrors for the dark horse Mercedes team, even though they were inconsistent in the past few seasons they have improved performance throughout the years. Slowly but surely the thriller of a story that could be called the 2025 season will get underway. Lando Norris might well be, and in my eyes must be, the protagonist of that story.