Lando Norris Outlines Real McLaren Advantage Against Max Verstappen and Red Bull
Lando Norris took a subtle jibe at Max Verstappen and Red Bull while revealing McLaren's real advantage in 2025.
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Lando Norris and Max Verstappen (via Formula 1)
Lando Norris and McLaren were seen as the favorites heading into the 2025 F1 season. The Woking-based team won the constructors’ title last year, and remains the fastest team on the grid this season. On the other hand, things have become much more difficult for Max Verstappen and Red Bull. The Dutch driver is having to push himself to the limit just to keep up with Norris and Oscar Piastri. However, as per Lando Norris, the real advantage for McLaren is not pure pace.
McLaren has won five out of the first six races with Piastri bagging four victories. Lando Norris and Max Verstappen each have taken a single victory each. Pressure has been building up on both drivers who are struggling to challenge Oscar Piastri at the front. While Norris tries to match his teammate, he pointed out the difference between McLaren and Red Bull this year.
Lando Norris insisted that the British team had no way to truly analyze the pace of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. However, the Briton did not hesitate to highlight that McLaren had two quick drivers while Red Bull solely relied on Verstappen. In 2025, Liam Lawson was promoted to Milton Keynes but was sent back to RB after a couple of disappointing races. Yuki Tsunoda is now the reigning world champion’s teammate. Though, the Japanese driver is still struggling to score points in the Red Bull car.
Impossible to know what car he’s got compared to us. The advantage we have is two quick drivers and they don’t, or we have a car that’s capable of allowing drivers to drive it quicker.
Lando Norris said, as quoted by PlanetF1
Norris might be taking a clever dig at Milton Keynes. The 25-year-old’s comments hint that unlike Red Bull, McLaren knew how to make a car that would make drivers comfortable from the get-go. This is something that the Austrian team has struggled for a few seasons now.
McLaren claims Red Bull good at ‘creating narratives’
Since the start of 2025, Red Bull has been regarded as the second-fastest team. Milton Keynes has not shown enough pace to have a real shot at the title against McLaren just yet. Max Verstappen receives immense praise for his talent when he manages to grab a good result despite the challenging car. Now, McLaren boss Andrea Stella has asserted that Milton Keynes often forms such narratives.
Stella claimed that Red Bull was great at maximizing every opportunity on-track, perhaps hinting at Max Verstappen’s impressive moves on-track. The McLaren boss further asserted that when Milton Keynes managed to grab decent results, they are able to form a narrative of doing ‘miracles’ on the grid. Andrea Stella’s remarks seem to be a way to show that Red Bull is not so far behind McLaren and Verstappen’s results shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise to fans.
Red Bull, they are very good at making fast cars, they are very exceptionally good I would say at driving fast cars and they are extremely good also in creating the narrative to their advantage. They exploit every possible opportunity to stay in the competition and some of these opportunities sometimes is to create the narrative like: ‘oh we are making miracles here.’
Andrea Stella said, as reported by PlanetF1
Despite McLaren’s comments, it is clear that Max Verstappen and Red Bull are not a match for the Woking-based team just yet. Milton Keynes will have a lot more to do behind-the-scenes if they want Verstappen to have a fighting chance against Norris and Piastri. So far, the four-time world champion has not ruled out the title, but he’s aware that it’s only getting tougher.
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