What McLaren must learn from 2024 to secure both F1 championships in 2025
Red Bull was a formidable Formula 1 team in 2024, but a late surge from McLaren threatened to topple the squad and snatch both titles from under its nose. But just as a real challenge from McLaren was materialising, cracks started to form, and it could only take the constructors’ crown last season. Now, with […]
Do the McLaren drivers’ opposing mindsets signify strength or weakness?
Poker players have a word for Lando Norris’s response to adversity: “leaky”. In a game of bluff and counter-bluff, allowing emotions to manifest outwardly is certainly a disadvantage and a weakness. Is it also the case in a Formula 1 driver? There are those who would argue so, saying this is a brutal dog-eat-dog world […]
How can Verstappen win F1 Saudi GP, and how will Norris move up?
Jeddah’s fast and furious street race is shaping up to be an enthralling contest, thanks to several cars which are starting out of position. At the front there is Red Bull’s pole sitter Max Verstappen, who will be desperately fighting off the faster McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Then there is Lando Norris — starting 10th […]
Norris struggling to drive MCL39 at the limit after Jeddah F1 quali crash
McLaren boss Andrea Stella believes Lando Norris is still not able to drive instinctively in the 2025 Formula 1 season, having crashed in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The McLaren driver hit the barrier on his first Q3 flyer, losing control of his MCL39 as he drifted across the unsettling Turn 5 kerbs […]
Why Norris believes McLaren can ‘throw pre-season test data in the bin’ at Bahrain GP
McLaren finished at the top of the timesheets in both FP1 and FP2 ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, but Lando Norris felt the team’s pre-season testing data could be «thrown in the bin» as he lamented the change in conditions. The Bahrain International Circuit is home to both pre-season testing and the fourth round […]
How Verstappen edged McLaren duo in F1 Japanese GP qualifying
Coming into Q3, McLaren had topped every session of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend – free practice, Q1, and Q2 – positioning the Woking-based team as the clear favourite for pole. Oscar Piastri led the way after the first runs in Q3, with Verstappen trailing by a quarter of a second. «I just thought, ‘I’m […]
McLaren F1 car quirks are «more of a penalty» for Norris
A car that’s quick but difficult to drive: this has become a familiar refrain up and down the grid in the final season of Formula 1’s current ground-effect ruleset. Lando Norris struggled with graining in the sprint race in China, labouring to eighth place after dropping three positions on the opening lap, and then had […]
McLaren car «may well» be slower if adapted to Norris’s driving style
Lando Norris seemed to roll a grenade under the door during a press conference ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix when he said he had effectively given up persuading his McLaren team to design a car which suits his preferred attacking style. Since the MCL39 was the benchmark car at the season opener – Norris […]
Norris declares McLaren the F1 title favourite with Piastri pushing him to be better
It is rare for Lando Norris to speak with an air of confidence over his 2025 Formula 1 title chances but, after holding off reigning champion Max Verstappen to take victory at the Australian Grand Prix, he concluded McLaren is indeed leading the pack. After McLaren locked out the front row in qualifying, Norris converted […]