At the start of the 2025 Formula 1 season, few would have expected Lando Norris to sound anything but confident. After all, he was driving the car of the reigning Constructors’ Champions, the McLaren MCL39. However, even as he celebrated taking the lead in the World Championship standings earlier this year, Norris revealed something that sent shockwaves through the McLaren headquarters in Woking: he didn’t fully trust his car.
Despite the polished exterior of consistency, winning the season opener in Melbourne and finishing on the podium in the next three races, Norris wasn’t completely at ease. The MCL39, for all its speed, was a tricky machine. The British driver called it unpredictable, almost mercurial. It delivered when it wanted to, not necessarily when he did.
While Norris’ early-season form was impressive, his teammate Oscar Piastri was quietly stealing the show. The young Australian’s five wins in the first nine races tilted the balance of power in McLaren’s garage. Meanwhile, Norris “only” collected two victories, a statistic that raised eyebrows among fans and engineers alike. The former clear team leader suddenly found himself answering questions about how and why the tables had turned.
Finding his rhythm again
Fast forward to Mexico City, and the British driver once again looked like the man to beat. Starting from pole position, he controlled the race with effortless precision, winning by a staggering half a minute. Behind him, Piastri managed fifth place, a reminder that momentum had swung back in Norris’ favour, at least for now.
“It’s difficult to quantify how much work the team has done behind the scenes to give me what I want and need to drive at my best,” Norris said after the race. He credited the relentless efforts of McLaren’s engineers, who had spent months tailoring the car’s setup to better suit his driving style.
The MCL39 is fundamentally quick but difficult to tune. Small setup changes can turn it from a precision instrument into a nervous handful.
“Progress has certainly been made,” Norris admitted. “But there are still weekends when I have problems with the car.”
Flashes of discomfort
Norris cited Singapore as a recent example, a weekend when he lost confidence.
“I almost felt like I was back at the beginning of the season, with no feel for the front and no confidence,” he explained.
It’s a recurring theme for Norris, moments when the car simply won’t bend to his will.
Earlier this year, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella acknowledged that Norris’ issues were most visible when driving on the limit.
“It’s in those final milliseconds, that last half percent, where Lando struggles to get the most out of the car,” Stella said.
Over time, McLaren’s development programme has sought to iron out the rough edges, providing Norris with a car that behaves more consistently under pressure.
While the updates have undoubtedly helped, Norris has also been putting in the hours away from the circuit.
“Of course, I have also done a lot of work off the track with my team,” he said. “I’ve been trying to understand what my problems were and how I can address them.”
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A perfectionist to the core
For Norris, the pursuit of comfort behind the wheel isn’t an excuse for underperformance, it’s part of a larger personal mission.
“The last thing I want is to make excuses,” he said candidly. “I hate that because I don’t like having an excuse for when I have problems. I just want to be able to drive any car I’m given.”
There’s a degree of humility in that statement, especially for a championship leader.
“Ultimately, it’s my job to drive any car I’m given, whether it’s great or terrible,” Norris added. “If I’m slow, it means I’ve done a bad job and wasn’t a good driver that day.”
It’s this no-nonsense approach to self-assessment that has endeared Norris to many within the team. He’s quick to celebrate his victories, but even quicker to take responsibility when things go wrong.
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The title fight is hotting up
With four races remaining, the McLaren duo are locked in a titanic battle for the championship. Norris leads by a single point over Piastri, a razor-thin margin that could evaporate with one mistake. The Australian, who was so dominant early on, has struggled to replicate his form since Monza. A series of unremarkable performances has handed Norris the advantage.
However, the Briton knows that McLaren’s work is far from over.
“There are certainly areas where we need to improve,” he said. “If I want to achieve what I did in Mexico more often, we need to improve the car further.”
As the season enters its final stages, the internal rivalry is reminiscent of the great McLaren duels of the past: Senna versus Prost, Hamilton versus Button; now Norris versus Piastri.
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The drama begins!
Meanwhile, Piastri has gone from golden boy to slightly bewildered understudy. After five wins, he’s now the F1 equivalent of a musician who’s forgotten how to play their own hit song. Somewhere in the McLaren simulator, an engineer is frantically searching for the ‘Piastri 2.0’ software update.
Then there’s Andrea Stella, the team boss, who is quietly navigating this civil war with the calm expression of a man who has seen too much telemetry. At each press conference, he smiles serenely while mentally calculating how much coffee it will take to survive another weekend of drivers discussing their steering feel.
The paddock, naturally, loves it. Two McLaren drivers battling for supremacy while everyone else argues about who has the better team dynamic, it’s the kind of subplot that Netflix dreams of.
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The championship outlook
As Formula 1 heads into the final stretch of the season, the margins could hardly be finer. One point separates Norris and Piastri. Meanwhile, Verstappen of Red Bull are chasing, hoping for a mistake that might reopen the title fight proper.
But the real intrigue lies within McLaren itself. Can Norris maintain his fragile truce with the MCL39 for long enough to secure his maiden world championship title? Or will Piastri rediscover his early-season form and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?
Mexico proved to Norris that his side of the garage has rediscovered its rhythm. For Piastri, it was a reminder that Formula 1 is an unforgiving sport. One moment you’re untouchable, and the next your teammate is on the top step of the podium while you’re answering questions about tyre degradation.
One thing is certain: the final races will be explosive, both on the track and behind the scenes. Norris may claim he doesn’t like excuses, but if he wins McLaren’s first drivers’ title since 2008, no one in Woking will care.
As ever, the jury is invited to deliberate: are we witnessing the rise of a true champion, or just the world’s fastest perfectionist who keeps his therapist on speed dial?
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Lewis Hamilton now has the worst ever record for a new driver joining the Ferrari team in 75 years of history. His much vaunted arrival in Maranello has gone incredibly sour as the former Mercedes six times world champion is running out of road.
The British driver’s racing statistics are plummeting as the world’s most winning F1 driver is suffering an end of career crisis. With just two Grand Prix wins in the last four seasons – one of those gifted to him by his team mate’s disqualification has seen Hamilton’s all time win to race start ratio collapse.
In his last 88 starts Lewis has just the two wins and so his career stats have collapsed from a nigh on a record 35% win rate to just 27.93% behind both Michael Schumacher (29.55%) and his arch rival Max Verstappen (29.69%) For the record Jim Clarke remains top of this list with a win ratio of 34.25%, although his 73 Grand Prix career was cut short by a tragic early death.
Worst record as a Ferrari driver
Hamilton now holds the worst ever record for a new Ferrari driver in terms of races before he claims his first podium for the Scuderia. The previous record of eighteen was held by ‘also ran; driver Diddier Pireoni now Hamilton is the latest Ferrari driver to sit in the shadows.
Meanwhile, without the advantage he had in the SF-25, Charles Leclerc has been making th best of a bad job in 2025. He has seven podiums after his triumph in Mexico and leads his champion team mate by 210-146. The Monegasque driver is 15-5 ahead in Grand Prix qualifying and has finished a whopping 17 times ahead of his most decorated team mate.
Yet Hamilton in his previous three years since losing out on a record eight F1 drivers’ championship has been a shadow of his former self, with George Russell beating him year in and out. Russel had one more win (although Lewis was gifted one) than Hamilton in their three years together at Mercedes, but in their final season together the statistics were crushing for Lewis…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
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NOPE! I CANNOT accept we are seeing the rise of a true champion in Norris. Far too many mistakes. He just happens to be driving the fastest car on the grid. Now – Piastri: I DO see him proving to be a true champion.
However, they both pale into insignificance against the true RACER … Max Verstappen. He’s up there, challenging still, even when he’s NOT driving the fastest car on the grid. He’s brought back the excitement of the Senna era, for me.