Lando Norris challenging Max Verstappen for the world championship turned out to be the highlight of the 2024 season as it was a novelty to see McLaren emerging as one of the fastest teams and the Briton fighting at the sharp end for the first time in his career. Still, Verstappen got the better of Norris for his fourth consecutive title.
Norris has a lot to learn from the several mistakes he made throughout his championship challenge in 2024. While he has claimed that 2025 will be his year to win the drivers’ crown, it won’t be that straightforward with Verstappen being at his level best.
However, F1TV’s lead presenter Laura Winter feels that Norris will evolve as a driver to tackle the Dutchman’s supremacy. Speaking on ‘The Cooldown Room’ segment on F1TV, Winter gave her thoughts about what she is looking forward to in the 2025 season.
“The emergence of new rivalries for the drivers’ title. The solidification of Lando vs Max. I think we’re gonna see a new Lando next year, one who has learned an enormous amount,” she said.
Winter also acknowledged that Norris made several errors in the second half of 2024 when he had the fastest car underneath. But the Briton has seemingly learned from those fumbles toward the end of the season.
All eyes on 2025 for Norris pic.twitter.com/sUoTFiRMvT
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) December 12, 2024
So, the F1TV presenter feels that if “he were to redo the second half of the [2024] season with the Lando we have now, with everything he has learned, we may have a different result”. To be fair, Norris showed some glimpses of his potential in some of the races he dominated from lights out to the chequered flag.
All of his wins after Miami — Zandvoort, Singapore, Abu Dhabi — came with a rather comfortable margin. However, that may not be a regular possibility in 2025 unless McLaren produce a dominant car. Winter feels that there will be other drivers and teams who will be on the Woking team’s gearbox, challenging Norris at every track.
George Russell and Oscar Piastri gunning for a 2025 title quest
Two other drivers besides Norris who showed immense potential by winning races this season were Russell and Piastri. Russell, in particular, has always challenged Verstappen whenever he has got a car equally quick to the Red Bull.
The last two races of the 2024 season especially saw an intense on and off-track tussle between him and the Dutchman. The Mercedes driver has been gunning to fight for race wins ever since he joined the Silver Arrows in 2022.
This season he did not have a consistent enough car to mount a charge against Verstappen on a regular basis. But if Mercedes can provide him with a fast enough car in 2025, his intense heated tussle with the four-time world champion may shape up well into a title battle.
On the other hand, Piastri has been silently doing well against Norris. Despite only being in his sophomore season, the Aussie was driving exceptionally well and even better than his British teammate at several races.
LAP 1 / 53
PIASTRI TAKES THE LEAD!!
The Australian sweeps around Norris at the della Roggia chicane to lead the field!!
Leclerc also squeezes past into second, sparking jubilation in the stands! #F1 #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/ViptiU4v5v
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 1, 2024
While McLaren had to implement team orders to prioritize Norris’ title charge in the second half of the 2024 season, Piastri still did not back down and was racing hard against the #4 driver. Had he not lost points in some of the bad races he had, the 23-year-old could have himself challenged for the 2024 title ahead of Norris.
2025 could actually see this reality unfold as McLaren are likely to have the most dominant package. So, if Piastri can start his season on the front foot and beat Norris to take the championship lead, things could get spicy between the McLaren duo, and the Briton could find it very difficult to mount a title challenge.
