The 2024 F1 season saw someone other than Max Verstappen throw his hat in the championship conversation for the first time since 2021. However, F1 commentator James Hinchcliffe reveals that McLaren’s Lando Norris was never really in that title fight. Rather, since the Miami GP, it was a marketing tool used by the sport to spice the championship up.
That said, the former IndyCar driver is now confident that the #4 driver is ready to finally take the fight to the Red Bull driver in 2025. Hinchcliffe dove deep into Norris‘ mentality going into next season on the Red Flags podcast.
“I think Lando [Norris] learned a lot of good lessons and I think he is now ready to genuinely fight for it [the championship] next year,” the 38-year-old explained. One of the biggest pointers for Hinchcliffe is how much Norris evolved during the last leg of the 2024 season.
Max’s 4th World Championship is almost in the bag, but off the back of his best season will Lando Norris up his game for 2025? pic.twitter.com/zJ4xDT7uzv
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) November 14, 2024
He explained that the McLaren driver had stopped being overly self-critical in the media. Hinchcliffe then went on to advise Norris to have more self-belief when he kickstarts his 2025 campaign.
The Canadian also highlighted how Norris has been able to overcome one of the biggest gremlins of his 2024 season and how it will be of immense help to him in the championship battle this season.
Has Norris sorted out his race starts in 2024?
One of the biggest talking points in the second half of last season were Norris’ race starts. The British racing ace had very publicly struggled with them throughout the season — often losing out on race wins and allowing Verstappen to solidify his championship advantage.
But Hinchcliffe believes that Norris has now ironed out those gremlins as evidenced by the last few races of the season. “Lando has now led several times out of turn one from pole so, he’s fine,” he added.
However, the Briton only led from pole in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, whereas lost the lead on lap one in Austin and Sao Paulo. So, despite what Hinchcliffe has claimed, Norris has yet to fully overcome this bugbear.
While the 25-year-old might find himself in the sweet spot with respect to the technical and mental aspects of going racing in 2025, he still cannot be termed as a favorite going into this season.
It might not just be Verstappen that Norris has to fight for the title in 2025. The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will be very eager to hit the ground running in their new partnership and end the Scuderia’s 17-year-long title drought. Even Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri cannot be ruled out of title contention, given his staggering improvement.
