Lando Norris will have to deal with “lucky” team-mate Oscar Piastri if he is to live up to his pre-season billing as the Formula 1 title favourite.
Norris was 63 points shy of Max Verstappen by the end of 2024 despite winning four races and producing the best season of his career to date. And the bookies fancy the Brit to go one better this time around after his McLaren team’s constructors’ title success.
Double champion with the team Mika Hakkinen has already backed Norris for championship glory. And that support has been echoed by another former F1 racer who believes the 25-year-old is now the complete package.
“I think Lando Norris is ready to win the championship this year if the car is good enough,” Swiss former F1 racer Marc Surer told MyBettingEdge. “He had some weaknesses last year, like his poor starts – even when on pole position he had a poor start.
“And also on the first lap, he lost many places on the first lap. But he solved these problems – by the end of the year, he was able to hold position at the start, so I think he fixed these weaknesses.”
McLaren are also favourites to retain their teams’ title in this last year of the current set of F1 car regulations. Their latest racing machine, the MCL39, looked to be very quick in pre-season testing and Norris produced the best long run pace of all his rivals over the three days of running in Bahrain at the end of February.
If McLaren start the season with a car that is a cut above the rest, it may be the case that Piastri, starting his third season in F1, will be Norris’ main title rival. The Aussie, 23, won two races himself in 2024 and will want to prove that he can match and beat his team-mate in equal machinery.
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In the eyes of Surer, Piastri has now become Norris’ “biggest problem” in his title chase. The Swiss added: “[Piastri] is a lucky driver. He is maybe not as fast as Lando Norris, but Piastri is a lucky driver – he sometimes has chances and he is able to take advantage of these chances when they come up.
“So if McLaren want to win the championship, they have to put Lando Norris as their number one driver. Otherwise Piastri will take points away from him. But I’m not worried about Lando. He is ready, he corrected his mistakes from last year. He is able to win the championship.”
Norris will hope to get off to a flying start with victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 16. But the majority of the crowd will be lending their support to Melbourne native Piastri, who will bid to win his home race for the first time.
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