As the opening ceremony for the 2025 Formula 1 season took place on Tuesday evening in London, McLaren driver Lando Norris asserted that his team is the favorite ahead of the Championship launch.
The 2025 Formula 1 season – will it be Lando Norris’s year? While his team McLaren finished first in the constructors’ standings in 2024, the British driver had to settle for second place, behind Max Verstappen. This year, all bookmakers place him at the top, and Norris himself proclaimed himself the favorite at the Championship presentation evening on Tuesday in London.
“After last year, I think we have no more excuses. In the past, we’ve had our share of honest and true excuses. I think this year, we don’t have any, we have nothing to hide. We proved last year that we had everything it takes to fight at the top and be the best. If we’re not at the start of the season, it’s because we’re not good enough and we haven’t done a good enough job.”
“Everyone has their own way of doing things, and I’ve said it many times but I’m always nervous, I feel the pressure and I know it’s there.”
“But that’s certainly not what we think, it’s not our mentality. I know that for many, I’m the favorite at the start of the season. And as a team, we are the favorites. Many people think that pressure is a bad thing. For me, it’s really the opposite, it’s a good thing. I’ve always been much better under pressure. I think and focus much more under pressure. Everyone has their own way of doing things, and I’ve said it many times but I’m always nervous, I feel the pressure and I know it’s there. But my best performances have often been achieved when the pressure was present.”
How Lando Norris missed his chance when it became concrete