Every Formula 1 driver on the grid heads into the new season with the goal of fighting for the world championship.
While Max Verstappen prevailed again last year, his closest rival for the title had never previously been involved in a championship fight.In his sixth full season in the sport, all with McLaren, Lando Norris had his most successful year to date. He won his first grand prix in Miami, then added three further victories, more than any other driver last year besides Verstappen.
Although Verstappen withstood the McLaren driver’s late bid for the title, Norris said the season helped him to develop into a driver capable of fighting for the championship one day.
“For the first time, I’m confident to say that I have what I think I need to fight for a championship,” Norris said ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend. “I think the main thing I can take away is I have faith that I have got what it takes to fight for a championship.”
But do you agree that he has proven himself to be of championship calibre?
For
Norris has clearly shown he is capable of fighting for a world championship title. After all, in one of the most competitive seasons in recent times, he beat everyone except Verstappen and went head-to-head with the world champion.
He scored commanding wins in Zandvoort, Singapore and Yas Marina. Although he had tough fights with Verstappen on occasions he also showed he could race him, passing Verstappen to win in the Netherlands.
Winning a championship also requires having a quick enough car and developing it through the season. It’s no coincidence that McLaren have made major strides forward in both of the last two seasons with his experience leading the team.
Against
Norris is a multiple grand prix winner now and no one can deny that – but that does not necessarily mean he is a potential champion.
He threw away too many points this year, often due to sub-standard starts from pole position. In contrast, Verstappen regularly maximised the opportunities available to him. Norris still needs to prove he can do the same.
With the competition outside the team likely to get fiercer, plus the growing threat from his improving young team mate, Norris’s first chance to win a championship may have been the best one he gets.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
I say
Yes, Lando Norris can fight for a world championship. After all, he did in 2024 – putting Verstappen under the most pressure he has faced for his crown since he first won it from Lewis Hamilton in 2021.
Realistically, the odds were never in his favour last year. Although McLaren did well to build themselves up into being the fastest team on the grid, they were only able to be any kind of threat to Verstappen due to the unusually steep slide in performance Red Bull endured as the season progressed.
Norris was far from flawless but championship titles have been won by great drivers who have made far more frequent and costly errors – just look at Mika Hakkinen in 1999 or arguably Lewis Hamilton in his first title-winning season in 2008.
Such is the quality of the modern F1 field, particularly at the front, is it any surprise the last eight seasons have seen just two drivers win the championship: Hamilton and Verstappen? But Formula 1 is not Moto GP – the drivers can only do so much. If Verstappen is stuck with a car that is relatively worse in performance than the RB20 was over the second half of 2024, even his exceptional talent may not prove enough to overcome that.
If McLaren can start a season as strongly as they ended 2024, as victory contenders from the start, then it’s absolutely believable that Norris has the potential to make a run at the world championship. Especially with the hard lessons he learned last season.
You say
Do you believe Lando Norris can be a world champion after his performance in 2024? Have your say in today’s poll.
Do you believe Lando Norris is capable of winning the world championship?
- No opinion (1%)
- Strongly disagree (8%)
- Slightly disagree (23%)
- Neither agree nor disagree (4%)
- Slightly agree (38%)
- Strongly agree (27%)
Total Voters: 132

A RaceFans account is required in order to vote. If you do not have one, register an account here or read more about registering here. When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Debates and polls
- How much F1 will you watch in another packed, 30-race season?
- Which F1 drivers will beat their team mates in 2025?
- Verstappen banned? Alpine sold? Which of these 2025 predictions will come true?
- Is F1 doing the right thing by overhauling car design rules again for 2026?
- Ten years since its introduction, does F1 need its superlicence points system?
Riccard
26th January 2025, 8:56
I think this is an interesting question with a boring answer:
– Yes, he could win a championship. Imagine a backmarker had taken out Verstappen in Brazil; or imagine that Red Bull had been off the pace from race 1 without banking since early points.
– However, he wasn’t the best driver last year and wouldn’t be favourite in a close contest with equal machinery; he has clear room for improvement (compared to the best) in consistency, racecraft, and wet weather racing.
Half the grid could be given a similar answer; the exceptions are those who couldn’t win even in the fastest car, or couldn’t beat their teammate; or Verstappen.
Robert Williams (@weiliwen)
26th January 2025, 11:48
I agree – he CAN win a championship; he has the talent and the equipment, but whether he WILL or not depends on him strengthening his mental fortitude.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th January 2025, 12:06
Only thing I disagree is norris is actually good at wet weather driving, look at his qualifying performance in brazil for example, he (and mclaren) just haven’t been great at decision-making in the wet, when to pit and for which tyres.
w0o0dy
27th January 2025, 7:20
I would say, making mistakes and running off track proves he’s not THAT good in the wet.
MacLeod (@macleod)
27th January 2025, 13:26
That is more the setup of the car more into dry (goes faster when it’s not raining so much) While he isn’t bad when it’s wet it’s different when it rains more which is more Max his territory and that shows.
El Pollo Loco
26th January 2025, 13:45
+1
More than half the drivers on the grid are capable of winning the WDC given the right circumstances. The poll question should be something more specific like:
Can Norris win a WDC if he has the best car for the entire season while Max has the second best car?
DMC
30th January 2025, 21:32
Spot on
Webbo (@webbo82)
26th January 2025, 9:31
Sure… Just not if it’s against VER, sadly
Jere (@jerejj)
26th January 2025, 9:32
Strongly agree if he can iron out his recurrent errors.
BasCB (@bascb)
29th January 2025, 13:26
Yeah, it makes more sense for him to say it AFTER the last season, there are many points both Norris and his team can learn from to improve and it’s likely that they will be closer to the top of the field when the racing starts this season compared to last season when they were not quite there for the first few races.
Will it happen? Who knows, what will go on this season, but CAN it happen and would Norris (given he learnt lessons from mistakes last season) be up to it – quite possibly yeah.
Coventry Climax
26th January 2025, 9:37
As far as I’m concerned, he’s shown he can loose a championship.
He might win one, but he’ll either needs to up his game, or a clearly dominant car.
Specifically Brazil showed him fall through and loose his head like a rookie.
It’s given him another problem too, likely, as I think Piastri will go for his own chances more, coming season.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
26th January 2025, 9:37
I voted slightly agree. Will says it all. If the McLaren is on a par with whatever it’s nearest rival car is, from the start, then Norris definitely has the abilities to become champion.
AlexS
26th January 2025, 16:23
If the McLaren is on a par with whatever it’s nearest rival car is, from the start, then Norris definitely has the abilities to become champion.
Not even close. Mclaren had the superior car for majority of races and not on par.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
26th January 2025, 17:28
This is not really accurate. Early in the season, before Miami, the McLaren did not seem to be the best car. By the time Miami came along. Max won five of the first seven races including the race after Miami. By then he was a long way ahead. He had pole position in all of the first seven races. I don’t think you can argue McLaren was the best car all season.
anon
26th January 2025, 21:59
@phil-f1-21 it would appear that the attitude of many posters on this site is to deal with absolutes, rather than wanting to deal with a more nuanced picture, and it seems that poster prefers to declare that McLaren had the superior car for most of the season because it is an easy narrative to repeat and one that conforms to their previously stated preferences.
In reality, the season seems to have been far more nuanced and a combination of circuit characteristics, tyre choices and ambient conditions created a scenario that favoured different cars during different phases of the season.
There were certain circuits in the middle of the season where the predominant corner types either were to McLaren’s strengths, or at least didn’t expose their weaknesses, or where the combination of tyre compound and ambient temperature happened to be in a particular window that worked well for them.
Given that created a run of better results for McLaren in the build up to the summer break, that created an atmosphere where, during that period, the press and the fans were likely to speculate about a possible challenge by Norris. As the season wore on, we then saw other circuits where the combination of the corner types, temperature and tyre choices happened to work better with other cars – but, because people had an incentive to build up Norris’s chances for various reasons, people tended to think that McLaren’s performances when things happened to be in their sweet spot was how they’d always perform and always said that they were at fault for not winning when there were circumstances where it’d be fairer to say that their opponents had the upper hand.
There was a trend where Mercedes tended to perform more strongly when the ambient temperatures were lower, followed by McLaren, whilst Ferrari and Red Bull performed better at circuits with higher ambient temperatures. Similarly, McLaren tended to have a preference for harder compounds in the tyre range, as did Mercedes, whilst Red Bull and Ferrari seemed to be more competitive on the softer compounds.
I’d say that it was really more of a case of seeing certain cars tending to be stronger at certain points in the season, with Red Bull being stronger in the early season, McLaren stronger in the mid season and Ferrari coming back into contention in the later stages of the season, with Mercedes occasionally putting in strong challenges when a specific set of circumstances came together for them.
El Pollo Loco
27th January 2025, 1:24
…except, Norris had a far more competitive car than Max for more than 80% of the season and still got outscored during that phase of the season by Max who was facing the same exact same maximum points limitations as Norris in the races where Ferrari or Merc had an equal or better package.
anon
27th January 2025, 8:40
El Pollo Loco, I disagree that it was “more than 80% of the season” – are you now trying to retrospectively claim that even races such as the Japanese or Chinese GPs, where Perez was still picking up podiums and Verstappen was winning with relatively little trouble, were races where McLaren was supposed to be more competitive? You didn’t think that McLaren was better than Red Bull at the time.
You are basically proving the point that I’ve made that people like to cling to an easy and clear cut narrative of “that car must be better than another in absolutely all circumstances”. I don’t think that the situation was anywhere near as rigid and absolute as you are now claiming that it was.
El Pollo Loco
28th January 2025, 6:47
OK, wow, it was 79.1% when I do the exact math. But that’s just GPs. When you include the fact that there were tons of sprints during that time too, it is “more than 80%.”
But, hey, let’s call it just 75%. What’s your excuse then? What’s your excuse for him being outscored over the latter 75%+ of the season during which no one debates Lando had the superior car to Max?
You’re grasping at straws here.
Mog
26th January 2025, 9:56
The narrative this year will be all about this. And he showed last year that even with the best car and f(i)avors, he couldn’t.
The media hype on Norris is likely going to ruin Piastri’s chances this year, maybe for good.
David (@nvherman)
27th January 2025, 10:31
Piastri is the one who’s going to ruin his chances, by virtue of not being as good as he has been hyped to be. He’s not as fast as Norris, and whilst Norris has areas to work on, as with the cars themselves, it’s easier to make a quick (but fragile) car reliable than make a slow (but reliable) car fast
MichaelN
26th January 2025, 10:08
That he lost points to Verstappen over the summer (or at the very least barely made up points, if you adjust the number of races included) is a major red flag.
But it wasn’t his fault that Verstappen could finish second in some crucial races, like the Netherlands and Singapore, because others, including his to often excused teammate Piastri, were nowhere to be found.
So 2024 was a bit of a worst case scenario for Norris. He failed to maximise his results, but when he did, Verstappen was able to minimise the points loss by coming second.
El Pollo Loco
27th January 2025, 1:33
OP went from looking like he might join the best of the non-championship drivers on the grid (CL, GR, LN) to looking like his peak may put him at the level of a driver like Sainz if he improves a lot. However, while there hasn’t maybe been quite as much talk as to his limitations, the nonsense about him taking the lead driver mantle at McLaren in the future totally stopped.
David BR (@david-br)
26th January 2025, 10:35
Slightly disagree. I’m not in the least convinced that Lando Norris declaring that he’s confident and ready for 2025 means an upgrade on his racing performances in 2024. I think he’ll be exactly the same driver with the same mentality. If McLaren have the fastest car, he’ll be competing neck and neck with Piastri all season, sure. But add another team or two to the front runners and his chances tumble. Both Ferrari drivers, possibly both Mercedes drivers and Verstappen seem more likely to have the speed, consistency and above all race craft Norris was lacking. I’d place Norris 5th among the drivers on the grid now – and that’s excluding Antonelli who may well jump into the top 5 himself by midway through this season.
Moi
26th January 2025, 11:36
Same answer as always in F1: in the dominant car, of course he can. He has proven to be faster than Piastri so far, so the #1 threat when you have a dominant car (teammate) is under control.
If he does not have the dominant car, and has to contend on more or less even footing with Max, or even Leclerc/Hamilton or to a lesser extent Russel, I fear he will struggle.
Still too many mistakes, even though he is quite experienced by now, and the psychological pressure of a title fight seemed to get to him. Whereas Max turns combative and seems to be able to channel his anger into performance, Norris seems to become petty and a bit mean, which does not help.
But people can grow of course. Time will tell, first question is if the McLaren will be as good this year as it was last year relative to the other cars.
BasCB (@bascb)
29th January 2025, 13:31
How can you tell UP FRONT that Norris will be making too many mistakes though? When he mentions having learnt from mistakes from last season (and presumably thinking the team has also learnt), can we just disregard that completely and write him off?
Off course, yes, he would have to improve on the mistakes he made (DUH) but if he does that, as he says he will, then he is rather likely to have a chance.
Robert Williams (@weiliwen)
26th January 2025, 11:52
Remember that Max made a lot of mistakes early on in his career, but he ironed out “most” of them and has four Championships now.
(If I’m being honest, those early years are why I really don’t like Max at all)
XM
28th January 2025, 11:38
Yeah, which is why I feel LN still has a bit more to go to reach Max’s level. Gotta remember that from the start, Max has been challenging legends like Ham, Alo, Vet, Rai, while also going up against Lec, Ric, Bot at times. Same with Lec when he got promoted to Ferrari. Trial by fire if you will.
Unfortunately MCL hasn’t given LN a good car from the start for him to be right in the battle and he’s had to learn in the midfields at best. Lucky for Lando though, when he’s ready, the likes of Alo and Ham would be gone from the sport.
PeteB (@peteb)
26th January 2025, 11:53
Of course he can win a Championship but 2024 showed that whilst he’s very fast, he has to improve quite a lot in other areas if he wants to win one without a Mercedes/Red Bull-esque dominant car.
He needs to find his nasty side. Without that, he’ll continue to get trampled on by Max.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th January 2025, 12:12
Yes, I voted slightly disagree too: slightly cause I don’t want to count him out, since he could still improve, now that he saw what works and what doesn’t in his first championship fight, however it’ll be always difficult to match verstappen’s consistency, and even if you take out verstappen I’m not sure about leclerc\hamilton\russell, so we’ll have to see.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th January 2025, 12:12
So far obviously he has a lot to improve on in terms of mistakes.
Neil (@neilosjames)
26th January 2025, 12:17
Voted slightly agree, as he’s just solidified his place in a group of drivers who could win the world title if they had a sufficient car advantage over everyone else. But he was in that group anyway, so 2024 didn’t ‘show it’ as such.
Craig
26th January 2025, 12:36
We’ll see how he does when he’s got a considerably better chance of winning it seeing as 2024 was always an extreme long shot but will at least have taught him a few lessons..
Ronald (@mosquito)
26th January 2025, 13:17
Of course Norris can win the championship, if the car is as good as last year and RB and Ferrari have difficulties in producing a steady fast car, than Norris is first in line to win the championship.
Last however he showed that he really needed a car advantage to make it work. His bad starts were mentioned in the article (not sure if this was only Lando, or also the car), but I am especially worried about his wheel to wheel racing. He is just not as firm in his overtakes as drivers like Leclerc, Piastri, Russell and of course Verstappen and Hamilton. That will bite him on the days his car is just a bit worse or he made a mistake in the start of the race or qualifying.
Maybe he learned from last year, he just did not show that yet.
Dane
26th January 2025, 13:54
Given a good enough car, half the grid could be a champion. If this turns out to be one of the most competitive seasons as many are predicting, then Norris better stop throwing away points.
Edvaldo
26th January 2025, 14:47
Disagree.
He is fast and reliable, but we’re only talking about this because he finished the season on a high, and that high lasts for four months instead of the usual two weeks.
Of course, he can put on a challenge, but it doesn’t take much for Max and Red Bull to beat them in similar machinery, like in Qatar. Norris was slightly faster on that one, but again, not aggressive enough on the first corner, allowing Max through in a track that was not easy to overtake. This dictated the whole race.
AlexS
26th January 2025, 16:26
If he has a very dominant car like Lewis Mercedes and his team mate is inferior yes he can do it like most of GP pilots.
Other than that he did not showed yet but i think he still have margin to improve if he gets help.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
26th January 2025, 17:55
I dont think everyone on the grid can. Lewis and Max’s team mates couldn’t bar one for Rosberg who promptly retired knowing how hard it was to do once. Id say theres maybe 5 or 6 who are consistent enough to win a WDC: Alonso, Leclerc, Russell, Lando, Max and Lewis. Terrible British bias of course but its my view
El Pollo Loco
26th January 2025, 18:35
Checo was P2 in the WDC in 2023. So, yes, even Checo showed he could win in the right circumstances. Obviously Bottas would have won too had he had a nobody teammate in the Mercedes.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
26th January 2025, 21:22
He was second but less than half the points of Max. Bottas was better but you cant say he would have won definitely as pressure effects everyone. If you cant beat your team mate you cant win the WDC so its moot anyway
Alonslow
27th January 2025, 14:58
Rosberg retired because he was tired of fighting Lewis, not really because of how hard it was to be the champion in one of the most dominant cars of all time, put a Perez in that Mercedes seat in 2014 and Rosberg would have kept racing and sweeps 2014-2020 probably only retiring in 2021.
Even Bottas would just not as dominant as Lewis.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
27th January 2025, 15:52
Im taking words from what Rosberg actually said, not my opinion, even so i cannot believe your level of hair splitting on that point.
Bish
26th January 2025, 17:34
I think Norris will be outperformed by his teammate Piastri, unless the team has other plans. And if McLaren favors Norris, then I see Piastri leaving the team.
As I see results for 2025 season –
1- Verstappan
2- Piastri
3- Leclerc
4- Norris
Leo B
26th January 2025, 22:24
Yes, I like the look of that. Only a few weeks now till we find out.
David (@nvherman)
27th January 2025, 10:35
I’m reasonable sure that Piastri will continue to be nowhere near as quick as Norris, for the foreseeable future)
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
26th January 2025, 17:51
I slightly agreed but he still drops points too often. He needs to remember that once Max gets rattled he turns nasty and over steps what is reasonable driving. As the FIA are at least saying they will clamp down on drivers forcing an opponent off, that should give Lando more belief he can get under Max’s skin and psychologically unsettle him. 2025 is his best chance, maybe the only chance in his whole career if 2026’s rule changes mix the grid up again.
BasCB (@bascb)
29th January 2025, 13:36
Yeah, that is the “game” Norris (and McLaren) will have to learn to play (apart from the mistakes he has hopefully for him learned by now) if he is to win against Max
Deerhunter
26th January 2025, 17:52
A bit surprising that this question needed to be asked considering Rosberg’s 2016 title wasn’t even that long ago.
They’re both hugely quick and capable drivers whose biggest weakness is that mental decisiveness when it comes wheel-to-wheel combat, but Rosberg has shown that this is far from an impossible gap to overcome.
Heck, I’d argue that Norris has already clawed back some of that gap by season’s end, so all things being equal, I don’t see why Norris wouldn’t be able to beat Verstappen over the course of a season. We’ve seen several times in 2024 that Verstappen can still get easily rattled when things aren’t going his way, like in Hungary, so the argument also cuts both ways.
Dane
26th January 2025, 18:04
I think Norris could be a similar level driver to Rosberg, but I don’t recall Rosberg making many mistakes – at least in 2016 where he really dug deep to overcome Lewis. Lando needs to take that next step if he’s going to beat Max because last his weaknesses were exposed.
El Pollo Loco
26th January 2025, 18:32
Norris should be flattered to be compared to Nico who was a much more complete driver in addition to having the same prodigious one lap pace Norris has. He also beat one of F1’s best ever drivers to win his title. But, yeah, the poll question is extremely poorly written. Most of the grid could win a WDC in the right circumstances.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
26th January 2025, 21:24
I 100% disagree
El Pollo Loco
27th January 2025, 1:15
Great points with lots of supporting evidence.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
27th January 2025, 11:24
You read and commented on my other post. Its all there.
Dracae
26th January 2025, 18:55
For now, untill someone else takes the crown, no one in an equal or even slightly better car will beat Verstappen.
So, yes Norris can win, if he improves quite a bit, Verstappen loses his edge or…more likely he has a much better car.
Those are the simple facts, even if not everyone accepts them, like many didn’t when Hamilton or Schumacher was ‘ top dog’.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
26th January 2025, 19:00
Had to vote slightly agree. Because I’m not yet fully convinced. I mean the speed to be a champion is definitely there. He beat Piastri comprehensively and Piastri is himself excellent, if inexperienced. But speed is only part of the package that makes a champion. The mental side is equally important and I’m not sure Norris is mentally tough enough. He’s been bullied at every opportunity by Max and by Piastri, who, by the way, has the mental toughness side definetely covered. So until he proves that he can improve the mental side of his game, he’ll forever be at a disadvantage. It’s not impossible for a soft guy to become champion but it’s rare and requires very special circumstances.
Sergey Martyn
26th January 2025, 19:04
Me says all this babble won’t even be considered if McLaren didn’t cheat with their rear wing mini-DRS.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
26th January 2025, 21:26
Its called f1 not WI. The whole ethos of F1 is to exploit the rulebook to your advantage. As one engineer said. They read the rule book twice. Once to understand the rules and a second time to find loopholes
Sergey Martyn
27th January 2025, 16:14
That was exactly my point – without that mini-DRS Lando and Oscar wouldn’t be able to deliver anything.
Palindnilap (@palindnilap)
26th January 2025, 20:31
Probably the question is ambiguous and different people answered to different questions. Come on, he is probably the third best driver on the grid, of course he can win a championship in the best car !
An Sionnach
26th January 2025, 20:32
Yes. He should be champion already. If Verstappen is not a contender this year Norris should be the favourite. I can’t see Ferrari having such a bit advantage that one of two evenly matched drivers can beat him.
Laz
26th January 2025, 21:33
Depends who he’s up against. A 2009 Button scenario then sure. But going up against a Verstappen/Hamilton multiple world championship winning driver is beyond him at the moment.
Leo B
26th January 2025, 22:21
Nah.
RB lost their way at one point. Took them a few weeks to sort themselves out. During this time Norris shone bright, but once RB were back that was that. Because RB have the best, fastest, most determined error free driver: Max.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
26th January 2025, 22:50
I suspect Lando will have been reviewing his 2024 season and working on his weak points. He should come back stronger this year. Assuming McLaren’s trajectory to becoming the pick of the teams continues into this season, his biggest obstacle may well be Oscar.
slowmo (@slowmo)
27th January 2025, 9:49
I’m almost certain Norris has shown enough that for the next 5 years he’s going to get in the top cars on a regular basis. The only doubt about him winning a title is if the car he’s got isn’t good enough for me. I think he will need a car advantage to do it because he is error prone and not as strong mentally as others. I do doubt he’s got the capacity to grind out title after title like Hamilton or Verstappen though, he feels like a great driver with a good shot at a fair wind title.
FW11B (@fw11b)
27th January 2025, 14:02
To quote Ayrton Senna, “any driver can win a championship, but not every driver can be a champion”. It may not be his best quote – it’s better to be a “mediocre” champion than a great has-been, IMO – but it sumarizes how I feel about Norris. He may win the driver’s title this year if McLaren maintains it’s quality and he is more consistent than his rivals (and better at the start), and if so than it will be merited, but I don’t feel he has champion-like material, unlike his teammate for example.
David (@nvherman)
28th January 2025, 9:02
@fw11b
Given their head-to-head stats last season, not sure why you believe Piastri has champion-like material where Norris doesn’t.