Norris thinks McLaren ready for fight for both championships
After two brilliant showings in the opening two rounds in 2025, Lando Norris reckons that McLaren are now ready to fight for both championships this season.
Despite his strong showing at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Lando Norris struggled for a consistent performance on the opening two days in Shanghai. However, the British driver managed to make inroads with his car for Saturday's main qualifying session and for the 56-lap Chinese Grand Prix to finish second behind his team-mate Oscar Piastri.
Piastri's mistake on Lap 44 in his home race at Melbourne means that Norris escaped from the Australian in the drivers' standings, albeit with 22 races left in 2025, the gap can be recovered quickly. Asked whether he and Piastri are ready to fight for the championship, Norris said that he is sure that they and McLaren are now able to handle any situations.
"Absolutely. I didn’t watch Formula One back then—it would have been 2007. Oh yes, Lewis and Fernando! You wait until he has a pit stop behind me and I’m not going to drive out. Or we’ll have like a little multi-22 or something! No, I think we are [ready]. I mean, yeah, we were free to race today.
"I didn’t have the pace to really get up to Oscar, and he drove very well. So he deserved it. Same really last weekend. You know, yeah, there were those two laps that I know everyone loves to talk about where we just held position, but the rest of it, we were free to race.
"So I'm sure we’re going to have some closer racing at some point. I think we’re both excited—probably nervous and excited at the same time—as I’m sure the team will be. But we’re ready.
"We know that as much as we work together and we have a good time and enjoy ourselves, we both know we want to try and beat each other and show who’s best. And that’s inevitable. So there’s no point trying to hide away from that fact or make something of it. We’re two competitors who both want to win. But we help each other out. I think we both achieved something better this weekend because of that fact.
"And we’ll continue to do that. So I’m sure at the minute it’s going to be like that, but at any point other teams can find something. Other teams have talked about upgrades and stuff already and they can catch up quicker than you think, just like we did last year. So as much as we’re doing that, we also have to think as a team and keep pushing the team forward from that side," concluded Norris.
