Nico Rosberg snubs Max Verstappen as favorite for 2025 F1 title

Former F1 champion Nico Rosberg sidelined Red Bull's Max Verstappen to name his pick for the 2025 world title.

Nico Rosberg snubs Max Verstappen as favorite for 2025 F1 title

Nico Rosberg and Max Verstappen (via IMAGO)

Max Verstappen entered 2024 as the title favorite. However, it became clear that McLaren’s Lando Norris would be a real threat for the championship. Now, even though Verstappen did emerge victorious, former F1 champion Nico Rosberg has refused to call the Dutchman the favorite for the upcoming season.

The 2016 world champion insisted that there was no reason Lando Norris couldn’t be the favorite for 2025. Nico Rosberg pointed out that by the end of the last season, McLaren had a much faster car compared to Max Verstappen‘s Red Bull RB20.

There’s no reason why he shouldn’t be the favorite, right? Because at the end of this year the McLaren was the strongest car.

Nico Rosberg said on Sky Sports F1 podcast
YouTube video

Additionally, Rosberg asserted that Norris seemed to have an edge over Oscar Piastri. The British driver was even given priority via team orders at certain races. Thus, Nico Rosberg reiterated that Lando Norris could be the pick to win the title instead of Verstappen.

He was marginally stronger than Piastri within the team. So he should be the favorite.

Nico Rosberg added

Lando Norris needs to fight ‘inner demons’ in 2025

Norris had a fruitful campaign in 2024 with a few race victories. Though, Nico Rosberg highlighted that the British driver still had a few inner demons to take care of. The former Mercedes driver emphasized that Lando Norris was still making a couple of errors, which must be avoided by working hard in the next few months.

Lando Norris (via IMAGO)
Lando Norris (via IMAGO)

We have seen that he still has some problems. He has some inner demons in his mind that result in one or more mistakes… So he has to work a little more on this aspect to reduce one or more errors.

Nico Rosberg explained

Max Verstappen would be expecting a real challenge from McLaren this year. The Dutch driver understands that things can get tricky without the quickest car. While Lando Norris would be banking on a potential performance edge against the reigning world champion from the start of the season.