Norris drops Ferrari fuel knowledge hint in Australian GP prediction

Lando Norris has downplayed the expectation surrounding McLaren ahead of the F1 2025 season opener in Australia this weekend.

After a strong pre-season test in which McLaren caught the eye of the rest of the paddock due to a very strong race run on the second day, Lando Norris believes his team’s main rivals are playing the underdog card.

Lando Norris’ ‘surprise’ at ‘short-sighted’ predictions

With the MCL39 impressing during the Bahrain test, rival teams like Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes earmarked McLaren as the team to watch in the early stages of the championship.

The reigning World Champions ended last season with the most versatile machine and won the season finale in Abu Dhabi, and that momentum – by all accounts – looks set to continue as the F1 2025 season begins at Albert Park this weekend.

But Lando Norris believes that McLaren were flattered by conditions during the spell of time on track in Bahrain that has led to higher expectations for his team, and expressed surprise at what he called “short-sightedness” over the predictions that McLaren will be the quickest in Melbourne.

“I know there’s a lot of expectation and that’s what everyone says,” Norris told media in Australia.

“Really, it was my one race run I did that just made everyone believe this quite heavily.

“It was a good race run, but it was also in the most perfect conditions. Oscar [Piastri] did a race run the next day that was a lot slower – not because he drove worse, but simply because the conditions on the final day were considerably slower.

“I’m quite surprised so many people are so short-sighted – especially people you wouldn’t expect to be – making so many conclusions before we even started the season.

“But everyone just wants to play that game of looking like the underdog and playing it down.

“We just focus on ourselves. It’s nice that so many people are thinking about us and talking about us – it’s great publicity for us, I’m thankful for them, but it makes no difference.

“If I go out this weekend and do a bad job, who cares what people have said in the past. I don’t believe it.

“I feel like we’re in a similar playing field to the top other three teams. I still think it’s us top four.”

Norris went on to tell TV crews of his excitement at starting the season, saying, “I’m relaxed, which is probably the best thing of all. I feel calm, I feel ready to go – not in a… a lot of people would take that in the way of being confident. But I think we have a good car, we have a good car to start the season.

“I don’t think in any way we’re superior to any of our main competitors – there’s obviously been a lot of chat [about] that and a lot of things said over the past couple of weeks, but I really don’t think we’re any further ahead of our competitors than we were last season or that people think we are.

“I still think it’s going to be a tough weekend for us and we’re going to be fighting everyone, but I think we’re in a good position to start off in a strong way and in a confident way. That’s what we want to be in and that’s how we want to start the season.”

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Norris took the opportunity to point back at one of McLaren’s rivals as being his pick for the weekend in Melbourne, suggesting that Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc could be the ones to watch when the action on track gets underway on Friday.

“There are many things that other people didn’t see where other people looked extremely strong, including Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari,” he said.

“I know how much fuel and stuff Ferrari had for a lot of the testing. You’d be surprised at how quick they’re going to be this weekend.

“People can talk what they want. I think, for us, we’ve kept to ourselves. We kept focused.

“We want to be quick, we expect to be up there fighting but I definitely don’t think by the margin that everyone is saying.”

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