Lando Norris: McLaren driver hits back at ‘short-sighted’ claims of car advantage ahead of Australian Grand Prix | F1 News

Lando Norris hit back at “short-sighted” claims McLaren have an advantage over the rest of the field going into the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

McLaren had the fastest car in the second half of last year as they won the constructors’ title for the first time since 1998 and they were seemingly strong in pre-season testing last month.

Norris’ race simulation on the second day of F1 testing in Bahrain raised eyebrows as he was around one second quicker than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli towards the final part of the long run.

Mercedes’ George Russell said McLaren will start the season “by far the strongest” and his team boss Toto Wolff stated the Woking-based team “clearly” have the quickest car.

“I know there’s a lot of expectation and that’s what everyone says. My one race run I did just made everyone believe this quite heavily,” said Norris, who was runner-up to Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship last year.

“It was a good race run, but it was also in the most perfect conditions. Oscar did a race run the next day that was a lot slower, not because he drove worse, but simply because the conditions on the final day were considerably slower.

“I’m quite surprised so many people are so short-sighted, especially people you wouldn’t expect to be, making so many conclusions before we even started the season. But, everyone just wants to play that game of looking like the underdog and playing it down.”

Norris: You will be surprised by Ferrari pace

If McLaren are fastest, testing suggested it is hard to split Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes in behind.

While Norris took eight pole positions last year, the joint-most with Verstappen, it was McLaren’s strong race pace which made the difference on Sundays.

Norris half-joked the talk about McLaren being title favourites is “great publicity” for the team and told people to keep an eye on Ferrari in Melbourne.

“If I go out this weekend and do a bad job, who cares what people have said in the past. I don’t believe it,” he added.

“I feel like we’re in a similar playing field to the top of the three teams. I still think it’s us top four (teams). There are many things that other people didn’t see.

“Other people looked extremely strong, including Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari. I know how much fuel and stuff Ferrari had for a lot of the testing. You’d be surprised at how quick they’re going to be this weekend.

“People can talk what they want. I think for us we’ve kept to ourselves. We kept focused. We want to be quick, we expect to be up there fighting but I definitely don’t think by the margin that everyone is saying.”

Reigning world champion Verstappen reiterated on Thursday’s media day in Melbourne that Red Bull have “work to do”.

“I know that we are not the quickest at the moment, but again it’s a very long season,” he said.

“If you would have asked that question here last year then at the end of the season again it looked completely different, so a lot of things can always change quite quickly in Formula 1.”

Norris and Piastri ‘free to race’

Earlier this week, McLaren announced Oscar Piastri had signed a new multi-year contract extension that will mean they have their drivers tied down until at least the end of 2027.

Piastri and Norris have largely worked together well on the track, although there were flashpoints last year.

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Norris was told repeatedly to let Piastri through during the latter stages of the race after he undercut his team-mate in the pit stops. Eventually, Norris let Piastri through with three laps to go so the Australian won his maiden F1 race.

Six weeks later in Monza, Piastri overtook Norris on the opening lap of the Italian Grand Prix when the pair were in first and second. In doing so, Norris also lost out to Charles Leclerc and the Ferrari driver went on to take victory.

After that incident, McLaren declared Norris would get priority for the remainder of the season due to his position in the Drivers’ Championship. However, at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Norris slowed down Sergio Perez to help Piastri and the latter won the race. Norris also allowed Piastri to win the Qatar Sprint just before they reached the chequered flag.

Piastri will have the home crowd on his side this weekend and Norris confirmed they are “free to race”.

“There’s no Papaya Rules. We’re happy to go against each other and compete. Of course, we have to know that we’re going to be against each other a lot this season and I hope we are,” he said.

“Our strength last season was helping one another and always giving each other a good amount of room, racing fair. That was our strength last season and we need to maintain that. That’s one of our biggest things as a team and our biggest goal.

“It’s always going to be tough because we want to beat one another. That’s inevitable in the end of the day. But at the minute there’s lines that we can’t cross as team-mates.

“Let’s keep both cars on track and don’t let any debris fly. Apart from that, we’re happy to race, we’re excited to race against one another and push each other to the limit.”

Sky Sports F1’s live Australian GP schedule

Thursday March 13

• 9.45pm: F3 Practice
• 10.55pm: F2 Practice

Friday March 14

• 1am: Australian GP Practice One (session begins at 1.30am)*
• 2.55am: F3 Qualifying*
• 3.40am: Team Principals’ Press Conference
• 4.45am: Australian GP Practice Two (session begins at 5am)*
• 6.25am: F2 Qualifying*
• 7.15am: The F1 Show*

Saturday March 15

• 12.10am: F3 Sprint*
• 1.10am: Australian GP Practice Three (session begins at 1.30am)*
• 3.10am: F2 Sprint*
• 4.15am: Australian GP Qualifying build-up*
• 5am: AUSTRALIAN GP QUALIFYING*
• 7am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
  7.30am: Australian GP Qualifying Replay* (9am on Sky Showcase)
• 9.55pm: F3 Feature Race*

Sunday March 16

• 12.25am: F2 Feature Race*
• 2.30am: Australian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
• 4am: THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX*
• 6am: Australian GP reaction: Chequered Flag*
• 7am: Ted’s Notebook*
• 7.55am: Australian GP race replay
• 10am: Australian GP highlights (also on Sky Showcase)
• 7pm: Villeneuve Pironi – Racing’s Untold Tragedy

*Also on Sky Sports Main Event

Watch all 24 race weekends from the 2025 Formula 1 season live on Sky Sports F1starting with the Australian GP on March 14-16. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime