{"id":32328,"date":"2025-04-03T06:36:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T10:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=32328"},"modified":"2025-04-03T06:44:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T10:44:54","slug":"norris-mclaren-only-team-with-two-good-drivers-at-the-minute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/03\/norris-mclaren-only-team-with-two-good-drivers-at-the-minute\/","title":{"rendered":"Norris: McLaren only team “with two good drivers at the minute”"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time in over a decade, McLaren were heavy favourites heading into this season. They certainly met expectations in the opening rounds, with Norris<\/a> and Piastri enjoying a comfortable advantage on race day – both in Australia and China.<\/p>\n

However, Lando Norris believes the Woking squad’s advantage is not solely due to the MCL39.<\/p>\n

Instead, he argues that his partnership with Oscar Piastri<\/a> is the main reason for McLaren’s advantage.<\/p>\n

Norris insists that drivers make the difference<\/h2>\n

It is customary in Formula 1 that those with the fastest car downplay the strength of their machinery.<\/p>\n

To varying degrees, drivers will point to the competitiveness of their rivals – even when they enjoy an advantage over the rest of the field.<\/p>\n

This is only logical, since admitting you have the best car puts you in a position to be criticised when you don’t take advantage.<\/p>\n

Lando Norris experienced this first-hand in 2024, when Verstappen<\/a> claimed the title despite Red Bull’s deficit to McLaren.<\/p>\n

When speaking to the media in Japan, Norris dismissed suggestions that McLaren are significantly faster than everyone else.:<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen over the last week and a half, other people saying they don’t think we’re that far away,”<\/em> he told The Race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“So as much as Max might say stuff, his last stint in China was very strong.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Still not as good as us, but it was a lot more competitive.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I was Fred Vasseur said that he thinks Ferrari should be competing against us, and a lot more up there.<\/em><\/p>\n

“In fact, they beat us in the Sprint, and they qualified ahead of us [in the Sprint].<\/em><\/p>\n

“So [we’re] not that far ahead of them.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Lando Norris during qualifying at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Steven Tee\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How big is McLaren’s advantage?<\/h4>\n

Of course, the analysis offered by Norris emits a series of key details.<\/p>\n

Whilst Verstappen enjoyed a strong final stint in China, that does not override the edge McLaren have enjoyed in virtually every other session.<\/p>\n

It was only a few weeks ago in Australia that both MCL39’s created more than a pit-stop advantage over the field.<\/p>\n

Red Bull are still dependent on Verstappen’s heroics to challenge at the front, and Ferrari’s SF-25<\/a> has proven very erratic.<\/p>\n

Even in the ideal operating window, the Italian machine hasn’t shown the same peaks in performance as the MCL39.<\/p>\n

Hamilton’s victory in the China Sprint was largely the consequence of McLaren<\/a> underachieving due to limited practice – rather than Ferrari having an actual pace advantage.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Norris maintains that McLaren’s line-up is the main difference-maker:<\/p>\n

“People love to be saying that,”<\/em> Norris continued.<\/p>\n

“[But it’s] because we literally are the only team that has two good drivers at the minute.<\/em><\/p>\n

“That’s the big difference.<\/em><\/p>\n

“If one of us was doing a lot worse, or one of us was not as strong, we would be [getting worse results]…<\/em><\/p>\n

“The [China] Sprint, Oscar was second or third – and I was already eighth.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But you’d have that a lot more often, like you do with Ferrari, or like you do with Red Bull.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Max is up there, and you have the other driver a lot further back.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Sam Bloxham\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A good problem to have<\/h4>\n

To be clear, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown deserve credit for assembling such a strong duo.<\/p>\n

Norris and Piastri give the papaya team a rare combination of speed and youth in their line-up.<\/p>\n

Still, it would be a stretch to say they are a significantly stronger duo than that of Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Certainly, when Hamilton, Antonelli and Tsunoda<\/a> get up to speed, is seems unlikely that McLaren can be attributed as having the best line-up.<\/p>\n

Regardless, from Norris’ perspective, the MCL39’s advantage is being overstated.<\/p>\n

As the year develops, the true extent of the British squad’s advantage will become clearer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time in over a decade, McLaren were heavy favourites heading into this season. They certainly met expectations in the opening rounds, with Norris and Piastri enjoying a comfortable advantage on race day – both in Australia and China. However, Lando Norris believes the Woking squad’s advantage is not solely due to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":32332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,444,66],"class_list":["post-32328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32328"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32336,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32328\/revisions\/32336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}