An irritated Lando Norris suggested people should “calm down” regarding the F1 2025 title picture as he insists he only “had one good weekend’ at the Australian Grand Prix, as the McLaren star distances himself from being tipped as the favourite.
The consensus after preseason testing in Bahrain was that McLaren had the edge over their rivals and that proved to be the case at the Albert Park Circuit from March 14-16 as the Brit took a commanding pole position and, at times, lapped a second quicker than Max Verstappen on Sunday.
Safety cars caused by the wet conditions brought the reigning world champion back into contention and the 25-year-old found himself with a job to do to make sure he got to the chequered flag first, which he ultimately did to lead the championship for the first time in his career.
It continues the momentum McLaren began around 10 months ago as they become the clear favourites to win both the F1 2025 titles based on the early stages, however, Norris distances himself from the suggestion and warns people to calm down with their hype based on the sample of one.
“It just makes no difference for me at the moment,” Norris told members of the media, including Total-Motorsport.com, at the Chinese GP; of the pressure of winning the Formula 1 title. “I’m not really thinking about it.
“I don’t really care about it. It shouldn’t change anything I do. It shouldn’t change anything the team does. I had one good weekend, people need to calm down a bit.
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“I stay focused and I’ll try to do the same here this weekend but I probably won’t even think of the championship until at least halfway through.”
Will McLaren suffer because of the technical directive?
McLaren come into the F1 2025 Chinese GP as the inform team and the clear favourites, with Red Bull projected to be second quickest; although Ferrari could become Norris’ main challenger if they produce the pace they’re expected to have.
And part of why analysts suspect the Scuderia and Verstappen could find themselves closer to Zak Brown and Andrea Stella’s team is based on a new technical directive aiming to end the “mini-DRS” debacle.
The debate burst onto the scene at the 2024 Azerbaijan GP when Oscar Piastri’s rear wing didn’t close fully on the straight, giving McLaren a straight line advantage that proved to be enough to repel Charles Leclerc at the Baku City Circuit.
Back then, the FIA quickly moved to ban the trick. However, inspired teams seem to have found other ways to sneak around the FIA’s rules by designing their wings with slight gaps to still mirror the effect on a lesser, but still beneficial, scale.
In response, the governing body of motorsport will tighten the rules and teams are ordered to comply with them at the Shanghai International Circuit. Those baffled by McLaren’s early pace suspect this could peg them back but their star drive shrugged those claims off.
“We don’t have to change anything,” Norris said to media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “Ours is fine.
“In fact, ours is probably too good and we are probably not pushing the limits enough, honestly. If this technical directive was applied for last weekend, we’d also be fine.
“So it’s not directed at us. It seems it’s directed at other teams which probably means we need to push a little bit more.”
