S Poddar
Going into the 2025 season of Formula 1 with new confidence and a sense of fighting spirit, Lando Norris prepares for a new term. According to him, the learning curve that he took in 2024 was immense. This season, he clinched his first four Grand Prix victories. He finished the drivers’ championship as the runner-up, earning 63 points behind Max Verstappen.
The 25-year-old Briton admits that losing out on the title was painful but believes it only made him stronger.
“When that kind of realisation sets in of ‘it’s gone,’ it’s a tough one,” Norris shared on the BBC podcast F1: Back at Base. “This is what I’ve done since I was a kid, this is all I want to do. So, as soon as that kind of candle is gone and it’s over, it hurts.”
Even despite the heartbreak, Norris delivered incredible progress within the season. His first-ever F1 victory took place at the Miami Grand Prix held in May-a starting point toward his championship race. He continually impressed as he went through to the season finale, securing pole positions eight and delivering performances out of this world that kept him in contention at the closing stages of the championship.
He cut the gap with Verstappen to 47 points with only four races to go, but Verstappen’s victory in Brazil sealed his deal, and Norris will have to wait until Las Vegas to make sure of his title. However, he doesn’t care much about the outcome because he has learned so much from this season.
“It’s been a year where, actually, I’ve been pretty proud of my performance. Proud of performing under the pressure that we’ve been under, delivering when I have, ” he said. “I’ve made my mistakes and, at the same time, I’ve learned a lot from those mistakes”.
Ahead of things, Norris says he believes and feels both that he and McLaren truly have it all to again come and compete with a strong show for the Championship title.
“So for us to go into next year, going ‘we have what it takes, we have a car’. I believe I’m a good enough driver and I’ve got everything it takes. I’m excited to go into 2025 knowing I’ve learned a lot, I’ve improved a lot and I’m ready to bring the fight to everyone.”
He believes that confidence has been an area of growth for him, and he admits that this season has helped him to become more positive-minded.
“Confidence is something I’ve battled throughout my career and probably I’ve only built enough throughout this season to go ‘I’m confident that I’m a good enough driver to win a championship next year’ and I can bring a fight to whoever wants to fight me for it.”
These insights were shared by Norris on F1: Back at Base, How To Go Racing, a BBC podcast that gives an exclusive look behind the scenes at McLaren and Aston Martin during the final ten races of the 2024 season. It’s narrated by American actor Josh Hartnett and takes listeners inside the teams’ factories in Woking and Silverstone, where they have conversations with key figures such as McLaren’s Andrea Stella and Zak Brown, as well as Aston Martin’s Mike Krack and Andy Cowell.
Norris is joined by insights from his teammate Oscar Piastri, who like Norris won his first F1 race in 2024. The Australian reflected on how he learned and improved during the season, especially in areas where he is still improving.
“I feel like I’ve definitely improved from my rookie season,” Piastri said. “In qualifying, I’ve made life a bit more difficult for myself than I would like, but the positive in that has been that I’ve had the ability to come through in the races and make the ground back up.”
For Piastri, the key to success in the coming season lies in refining his overall performance. “It’s now a case of just getting everything together rather than trying to fill in some missing gaps, which I think was the case last season.”
McLaren had returned to prominence in 2024 and took back the constructors’ title for the first time since 1998. Team principal Andrea Stella continues to emphasize constant improvement while avoiding the complacency that will likely be set into the new season.
“It will be very naive to think that because we achieved the constructors’ championship, now we deserve it for the future,” Stella said in the podcast. “Something that you have to deserve by doing a good job and, in a way, by doing a better job than you have done in 2024, and it was important to discuss the many opportunities we have to do better.”
Stella highlighted the tight margins McLaren celebrated at the end of last season. “We won the constructors’ championship of 2024 but our performance benefit that we enjoyed on average was only 0.04% and the points lead that we enjoyed was only 2%. With a gap of 666 points in the season, that margin is such that if you do not go any better than that next season then you must prepare for the loss. We do not want to lose. We want to continue to win and so we must keep increasing the stakes for the future.”
Hungrier than ever to succeed, McLaren and Norris go into the 2025 season. Confidence gained, lessons learned, and the hunger to win; Norris is going to give his all in an attempt to compete with the best in Formula 1.
Catch up on the eight-part series F1: Back at Base now on BBC Sounds. New episodes every week on the F1 Chequered Flag feed.
