Lando Norris said McLaren should be regarded as the championship favourites following his victory in the season-opening race yesterday.
However Norris, who led Max Verstappen home by less than a second, pointed out rival teams could overturn the advantage McLaren showed in Melbourne yesterday.“Max was three-tenths off yesterday,” Norris pointed out after the race. “Last year, we were much further off [but] ended up with the best car by the end of the season. We were over half a second off at the beginning of last year behind Red Bull and ended up with the quickest car.”
He dismissed George Russell’s claim McLaren are so far ahead they could win the championship without putting further development into their MCL39. As last season’s champions, McLaren are already permitted less wind tunnel testing time than their rivals under F1’s performance handicapping rules.
“I know George made some comments earlier this weekend that we can just turn our focus to 2026,” he said. “If that’s their mentality, wonderful, but that’s not the mentality to have.”
“We know we still have a lot of work to do on this year’s car. If you relax in this position, you fail. In Formula 1, if you start thinking things are good and groovy, that’s when you get caught.”
McLaren and Mercedes are tied on points after the season-opener, while Norris leads Verstappen by seven points in the drivers’ championship. But Norris suspects other tracks won’t suit their car as well as Melbourne did, such as Bahrain International Circuit, where teams tested last month.
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“I do think we’re favourites because the team has done an amazing job and the car is flying,” he said. “But we will have races where we struggle.
“If we started the season in Bahrain, I don’t think we would have won, and [I wouldn’t be asked] this question. Let’s allow a few more races to take place before making any obvious statements.”
Norris came under sustained pressure during yesterday’s race from his own team mate, Oscar Piastri, as well as Verstappen. Sitting next to Verstappen and Russell, whose team mates are far less experienced than Piastri, Norris pointedly remarked that McLaren’s driver line-up is part of its strength.
“We are the team to beat, mainly because we have two drivers up there pushing each other. That helps.
“Do I think me and Oscar pushing each other in qualifying yesterday allowed us to get one-and-a-half [tenths], one tenth more than the two drivers here, because their team mates aren’t as equipped or experienced? Yes. So add that into the equation as well.
“It’s not just about the car. The team has done an amazing job, and I thank them for everything they’re doing. But we know we can make it better, and that’s our aim.”
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Teams’ fastest lap times in Melbourne
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2025 Australian Grand Prix
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BasCB (@bascb)
17th March 2025, 12:43
A rather based way of looking at things yeah. While “Max finished a couple of tenths behind” ignores the 15-18 seconds that were wiped out by SC periods, i would agree that McLaren is rather unlikely to have this advantage at all/most races.
It does seem that their tyre wear remains a very strong point – we saw it several times last year as well (after the Miami update), they were fast/competitive in qualifying, then at the start of the race they were there or thereabouts and by the halfway point of the stints they were able to keep pace or even go quicker while the competition were starting to struggle with their tyres.
But Ferrari could have been a lot closer in a dry race and if they manage to get strategy working, the Mercedes will be close enough they cannot be wholly ignored and Max is close enough to be a challenger for the title regardless.
pastaman
17th March 2025, 16:01
He was talking about qualifying
MazdaChris (@mazdachris)
17th March 2025, 17:03
I definitely think that RBR were flattered by the result yesterday. The battle at the end gave the impression of the Red Bull being closely matched to the McLaren, but without the safety cars, as you say, it feels like McLaren could have won the race by 30s+
Agree re the tyre advantage; mid-stint the McLaren just seems to come alive and deliver really fast, consistent pace. This does come with some disadvantages though. Typically, a car that’s easy on its tyres may also take a little longer to get the tyres into the ideal operating window. We saw last year several times that McLaren were vulnerable off the line and also immediately after a pitstop. This seemed to carry over to Melbourne as well, with Piastri having to fight for position with Verstappen at T1, as well as the Red Bull looking very punchy on the restarts.
Of course, this is one race, on a street circuit in the wet. It’s not necessarily the best indicator of how the cars will perform at other venues and in other conditions. But right now, McLaren look to be in a very strong position to build a good lead in both championships, and have to be considered the favourites. Whether that’s going to still be the case after 23 more races however is anyone’s guess.
Stephen Taylor
17th March 2025, 17:49
Rumour has it Ferrari hobbled themselves in terms of performance wise in Melbourne because they decided to run with a higher ride heighr than other teams due to their concerns over plank wear after practice.
Edvaldo
17th March 2025, 13:07
It’s too early to say it, even if the car is obviously good. The season is too long, enough for things to change. Don’t you remember 2024?
But just like Max last year, Norris should build a cushion now that they’re ahead.
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
17th March 2025, 22:50
There’s a major rule change coming up next year. I’m not sure the top teams will put resources into this year’s car to close the gap like they did last year.
F1fan
17th March 2025, 22:26
Max outscored Lando from Miami onwards for reference last year. Cushion helped how he drove but no one with 2 functioning eyes and a brain would actually say the early cushion upto race 6 is what won Max the title unless of course they have a personal agenda that is.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th March 2025, 4:56
Yes, agree, verstappen did an excellent job of damage limitation the rest of the season, when mclaren was stronger, and norris could’ve done A LOT better in those circumstances with the car he had.
Their performance here is an example of that work by verstappen.
Norbi
19th March 2025, 7:49
Nothing against the performance of Max, but everyone seem to keep forgetting Ferrari and also Mercedes had vers strong outings and even wins which also took away from Mclaren…