SILVERSTONE — Lando Norris is relishing the tag of Formula 1 title favourite this year, even if it means being more aggressive while fighting wheel-to-wheel with Max Verstappen.
Norris and McLaren are early favourites for 2025, with the team clinching last year’s constructors’ championship.
Despite McLaren’s six-win season, Red Bull’s Verstappen beat Norris to the drivers’ title, with the latter admitting later in the season he was “not ready” to beat the Dutchman.
The pair collided at the Austrian Grand Prix and had further collisions in Austin and Mexico City.
Speaking at the launch of McLaren’s 2025 car, Norris said he needs a change of approach.
“I need to get my elbows out, and I need to show that I’m not going to willingly give him any positions, those kind of things,” Norris said. “But I also have to be a smart driver. You have to be a smart driver to go up against Max.
“We saw it last year. So I look forward to them. I like those moments when you have to make those quick decisions, and it’s always a lot harder when you’re in the car than when you re-watch it after, and you just think, like, even when I see some things that I do, I’m like, ‘why the hell have I done that, what an idiot!’
“But at the same time, I want to say, I don’t need to go out and just prove something to him. I don’t need to take any unnecessary risks, and I don’t need to go down trying, necessarily. I just need to keep focusing on myself.
“I don’t think you have to do anything special to try and beat Max. He’s quick, he’s aggressive, he’s one of the best ever. The easy way is just going out and being a bit quicker than him, and staying ahead. That’s the obvious plan, but I know, I’ve just got to be smart. That’s the answer to it all. You have to be smart, and you have to position the car well, and also think of the long game sometimes.”
Norris’ title hopes were hampered by McLaren’s slow start. Verstappen won four of the first five races before Norris’ breakthrough Miami Grand Prix victory, which kickstarted the McLaren championship challenge.
Norris admitted that did not put him in the right mindset to fight Verstappen as aggressively as he needed to.
“I wasn’t simply quite at the level that I need to be to race against Max, but when we’re talking about that, we’re talking about probably going up against one of the hardest attacking defence guys you can ever go up against, like we saw in Mexico, [he] very willingly sacrificed himself for the benefit of the overall outcome,” he said.
“And when that’s the mentality of a driver, whether it’s Max or any driver, that’s a very difficult one to ever come on top of, when you’re 50 points behind or 40 points behind in the championship, because it’s never going to be a win for me.”
The favourites tag is new territory for both Norris and his team — who 12 months ago had just one race victory to its name since the start of 2013. Norris won four times in 2024, with teammate Oscar Piastri adding two of his own.
When asked if he would encourage fans to back him as champion, he joked: “I mean, I hope they make a lot of money on me!”
He added: “I’m definitely not feeling the pressure of all of these things. I know there’s the expectation, and we have more partners and sponsors and all of these things, and fans.
“Every single one of these things adds to the pressure and the nerves of it all, but I think I said in an interview the other week or something, that even when I brought it up in the past, that the pressure and the nerves … People always somehow turn it into a bad thing, but it’s not a bad thing at all. For me, I always perform better in these situations.
“I like that I have that kind of bit of pressure on my back.”
