The pecking order deduced from pre-season testing cannot decide the championship standings, but if there was one thing conclusive from the three-day outing in Bahrain last weekend, it was that McLaren is the fastest team, heading into the 2025 campaign.
The Woking-based outfit won the Constructors’ title last season, so this doesn’t come as a surprise. But for Lando Norris, this will be huge. For the first time in his career, he will start the season as the title favorite, courtesy of McLaren continuing to have the best mechanical package.
However, no car is perfect. The MCL39 has been strong, but there were reports of oversteer affecting the rear stability of the car during testing.
When asked about the same during an interview with NBC, Norris revealed its pros and cons, and highlighted expectations heading into what could be the most competitive F1 season in recent years.
‘Is that a strength or a weakness?’ — that was the question Norris was pressed with. And the McLaren driver replied, “A bit of both”.
Of course, any issue making the car unstable isn’t ideal. It’s something that the team will have to work on before hitting the track this Friday for the Australian GP weekend. “It’s bad because it makes it tricky at times, and quite unpredictable. And it’s my job to try and get in front of it,” Norris added.
That said, it could also be a strength. Not a lot of teams have the clarity of which area to improve on after just three days of pre-season running. Many issues remain unsolved, but as far as McLaren is concerned, they are aware of what they need to do. “They can really just try and focus on that,” the 25-year-old said.
Norris didn’t look too worried about the problems that came up. That’s perhaps because he prefers his car to oversteer, just like reigning four-time champion Max Verstappen does. So, McLaren won’t have a lot to work on. All they have to do is tone it down, and Norris should be more than comfortable with the MCL39.
Norris’ lessons from 2024
It was a bittersweet season for Norris last year. After starting things on a quiet note, McLaren’s mid-season development put him right on top of proceedings. All of a sudden, he became the favorite to win most races, and Verstappen — for the first time in three years — was made to look over his shoulders.
Norris won four races and got eight pole positions over the course of the 2024 season. Still, he finished runners-up in the standings, as trumping Verstappen’s incredible start to the season (seven wins in 10 races) proved too difficult.
The Bristol-born driver, however, acknowledged that it could have been possible had he made lesser mistakes.
“I learned a lot of lessons,” Norris continued in the interview. “The main ones are just the belief in myself that I’m able to go up against the best and I can win against the best.”
ONE. WEEK. TO GO. pic.twitter.com/PwhPF9bz3V
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 9, 2025
“We had a lot of races that we probably let slip. Those are the races you learn more [from] than the ones you win.”
Norris, who has always been the one chasing frontrunners, will be the hunted star this season. To truly live up to expectations and prove that he learned from last season’s mistakes, he will have to get going from the first race.
