Heading into the 2025 season, Lando Norris had reason to believe that it was going to be his year. He had just been part of his first championship battle the year before with Max Verstappen, and even though he came out of it second-best, he learnt a lot. Norris was confident about his chances and was looking to justify his ‘favorite’ tag.
Considering McLaren developed the fastest car, Norris also had the resources to do just that. But five races into the campaign and his pursuit for glory appears to be faltering.
Norris, during his 2024 battle with Verstappen, made multiple errors in several races, which practically ended his chances of competing for the crown and handed the Dutchman a clear path to defending his title. This was despite the fact that McLaren back then as well had the quickest mechanical package for most of the season.
Most of these mistakes were attributed to Norris’ weak mentality and his inability to handle pressure. Sadly, 2025 is proving to be a similar kind of year for Norris. He is doing what unraveled his championship challenge last year—putting too much pressure on himself.
In the F1 Nation Podcast, Norris admitted that he performs at his best when he’s actually having fun, and that’s something that he hasn’t felt so far his season. Addressing his string of mistakes in recent races, the Bristol-born driver revealed,
“I’m probably just putting too much pressure on myself at the minute. Not because of any reason, and not the championship. Just because I put too much pressure on myself because I want to do well.”
Full footage of Lando Norris’ crash in Q3!#F1 #Formula1 #SaudiArabianGP #LandoNorrispic.twitter.com/yHVkb8dNpO
— Extreme Cars (@extremecars__) April 19, 2025
“I want to do so well, like, I wanna be pole, I wanna win. I wanna be perfect. And I think I need to accept it a bit more that I’m not going to be perfect. And I’m making mistakes because I’m trying to be perfect rather than the other way round.”
Norris’ internal battles, however, are hurting his chances of winning his first-ever title. He’s been making mistakes that a champion rarely makes, and doing so quite frequently. For instance, last weekend in Jeddah, he crashed out in Q3 during qualifying, which limited him to a P10 start for the Grand Prix.
On the same weekend, his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who started from P2, went on to win the race and pull 10 points clear at the top of the championship standings. So, it seems clear that Piastri appears much calmer under pressure than Norris, a trait experts have pointed out in the past.
Even in the intra-team battle at McLaren, where Norris and Piastri have been given the green light to race each other freely, the Australian seems to have the upper hand. So, unless Norris regains control and starts ‘having fun’ again, the championship looks likely to swing in Piastri’s favor.
