McLaren driver Lando Norris has admitted that a “disastrous” start to the season actually helped transform him into a favorite for the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship. The British driver enters the final three races of the year — starting with the Las Vegas Grand Prix — with a 24-point lead over his main rival: McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.
The season began perfectly, with a victory in Australia, but Lando Norris then went through a six-race winless streak, struggling to find the right feel with the MCL39. Several mistakes and inaccuracies cost him valuable points, allowing Oscar Piastri to build a significant gap.
The turning point came thanks to McLaren addressing the weaknesses of the car, including a new front suspension that helped him regain competitiveness. Norris explained: “It’s hard not to do a better job compared to what I was doing at the start of the season. I definitely struggled early in the year, and we changed a few small things on the car that we think — although none of them are guaranteed — may have helped me.
“When we fitted the new setup, it wasn’t like saying: ‘Oh, this is much better.’ It was more like: we think it’s better. If you don’t feel anything, we leave it.”
However, Norris emphasizes that his improvement wasn’t only technical: “The rest depended more on me, trying to figure it out myself and with the group of people around me — my engineers and the rest of the team.”
The mental work behind the step up
“Where I am now is largely thanks to the mental aspect,” the championship leader revealed. “I’m in this position because of how the season started. I’m almost happier for having had a rather poor start — except for a couple of races like Australia.
“Those difficult moments forced me to focus, and I started working much harder on those areas to improve them, and that’s what brought me to a much stronger position.”
Support from the team has played a key role in this process: “I have a very strong group of people around me, of which I am very proud. They are there to help me and give me the right mindset when I’m down. Now, even if I have a bad day, I think: ‘I’ve done this before against the best. I was off pace and turned it around when it mattered.’ And that’s reassuring.”
Lando Norris concludes that there isn’t a single decisive factor, but rather consistent work: “There hasn’t been one key thing. Lots of work off-track with different people, lots of work on-track. But it all starts with my team around me.”
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