It is to do or break for Lando Norris this year, for his reputation and his future. Indeed, the convincing indications of the pre-season tests in Bahrain suggest that his McLaren team has the fastest car.
Bookmakers mean that the 25-year-old British favorite won the world championship, 7-4 depending on where you booted, with title champion Max Verstappen 3-1 second favorites.
Next comes Charles Leclerc de Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton, barely divisible around 5-1.
And, a subject to which we will come back, the teammate of Norris, Oscar Piastri, is an intriguing 8-1.
Of course, if a bet on Norris is to prove a good investment, McLaren must maintain his advantage, which is built over most of last season as the fastest championers and becomes champion of world manufacturers for the first time this century.
There are also the usual unknowns in the arms race which is formula one, the possibility of a rival dividing a technical breakthrough, although the regulations have matured – during their last year before a major overhaul for 2026 – The opportunities for Eureka moments are limited.
Lando Norris is preferred to be crowned world champion F1 before max Verstappen
McLaren seems to have the fastest challenger again and must maintain their advantage
Norris could become the 11th British to win a world title but Verstappen will push him
This is a long way to say that, bars the unexpected, Norris will have the tools he needs to become the 11th man in this country to win a world title, as a heir to Mike Hawthorn, which was the first in 1958. Hamilton was the last in 2020.
The truth is that it is the second time that Norris could accomplish this feat. Last year, after an upgrade in Miami in May, the McLaren was the supreme machine of the grid. He should have won the title, without a doubt, but the resilience and crafts of the Verstappen race were unbeatable. Mentally, and on the right track, he held Lando in a vice handful.
It was a shame for Norris because he was driving beautifully so often. He was fast on a tour. But when he went down to an arm struggle, his wrist used to hit the table. A myriad of pole positions has been wasted, especially in Austin which rises the hill in the first turn, when the title fight was alive and fierce.
He is fortunate to have another chance of contesting the greatest price in sport.
Indeed, Tad to report for the public at home, the launch last year was the most visible example of a pilot in a higher car that has lost the title since Ferrari’s Felipe Massa – which slipped like a soap bar in the wet – was beaten by Hamilton, in a game of McLaren, in 2008. As with Verstappen last year, Hamilton was the best in the game. An achievement of this harsh reality is consuming in the psyches of runners even as good as Massa and Norris.
There are attenuations for last year’s error. Although it is his sixth season in Formula 1, it was Norris’s first crack during a title. The team staff were also rusty or new in the unique combat requirements at the front, and in any case their main objective was on the manufacturers’ championship rather than on the pilot crown.
If Norris has to deliver his favorite status and achieve the ultimate intention of his salary of 20 million pounds sterling, he must do at least two things.
Firstly, he must overcome the Mental Verstappen seems to have on him, and the Bull Red of the Dutch seems better than that of last year with relatively positive vibrations from the camp of the world champion.
Norris must overcome the Verstappen Mental Get on him after last year’s error
His teammate McLaren Oscar Piastri, on the right, is a black horse after an additional year of experience
But Norris has sworn not to be intimidated and plans to take out her elbows during the duel with rivals
Norris has sworn not to be intimidated. Speaking recently in Silverstone, he said: “I have to go out my elbows. I need to show that I will not give him a position.
“I must also be an intelligent pilot. You have to be smart to face max. But I look forward to it. I like to have to make quick decisions. It’s always much more difficult when you are in the car than when you look at it. But even when I see certain things that I have done, I am like, what did I do? What an idiot.
“But at the same time, I don’t mean that I have to prove something to him.
“I don’t need to take unnecessary risks. It is fast, it is aggressive, it is one of the best of all time, so the easy way is to be faster and stay in the lead. It means I want to start the season.
The other curve is on the other side of the garage: Piastri. The 23 -year -old Australian with two campaigns to his credit is described as a silent assassin.
As a demon behind his level and his reasonable character. Many observers in sport think that his steel will lead him to prevail after an additional year of experience and since McLaren, the most beautiful teams of the CEO Zak Brown and the director of the Andrea Stella team, guaranteed their pair of equal drivers, n ° 1 and n ° 2.
Piastri may succeed – it is not a bad price for him in the bookmakers – but last year, he won two races against Norris Four, was beaten 20-4 in qualifying and finished 82 points behind his teammate.
Sport Mail According to Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion, while riding a flight to Adélaide for a celebration of his victory in the last race there 30 years ago. He is a great supporter of Norris.
His reaction to pressure and the race against close friends is now the central question before him
“I always think he can beat Oscar,” said Hill, who will comment on Channel 10 of Australia during the opening race next Sunday in Melbourne, after being separated from Sky (their difficulties).
“Oscar is brilliant, but Lando withdrew a little more if necessary. Oscar is talented but Lando is a force.
“I think he fell into the trap last year, thinking about Max that he was running against his companion. In fact, despite their friendship, he took his worst enemy. And in Max’s mind when he drives, there is just a max.
“Lando blames himself when he makes mistakes. He is very hard with himself. He is not happy if he does not think he obtained 100% of his potential. It is the mark of a large driver. I also like his personality. It is very attractive.
“Because I live in Guildford, McLaren is my local team (in Woking, Surrey). I would like to see them do well, but not be dominant. I would prefer it to be a difficult fight, good for fans.
“Formula 1 is so much more complex than when I was driving. It was relatively simple then. You will receive radio messages from time to time. But often, no one had an idea of what to say to help.
“Now information comes quickly and quickly. Lando is one of those pilots who can take the information without missing a beat.
If Norris can get one on Verstappen, it will raise him in a famous national silhouette
Hill had to go there shortly after having transmitted these observations, placing his bags in the air locker for the long trip below.
Like Norris, he had to face a force of nature, in his case Michael Schumacher, who collided with him in Adélaïde in 1994. But he rose in the two years later, the Triomphe and Murray Walker with a bump in his throat.
And if Norris, a wonderful talent, can get one on Verstappen, the schumacher of his time in some respects, only once, he will only be cathartic after last season but will pupil him in a famous national silhouette.
So no pressure then. And Norris’s reaction to pressure – in the form of his Max friends, and perhaps Oscar – is the central question before him.
