Interesting Lando Norris prediction for F1 2025 is a blow to Max Verstappen

Lando Norris has the pace and the machinery to win the F1 drivers’ championship this season, our experts predict.

McLaren’s Norris fought valiantly last season but fell short against Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who racked up his fourth title in a row.

But McLaren ended 2024 with F1’s fastest car which should give Norris hope to build an early advantage against Verstappen this year.

“The pace he showed at the end of the year, he really cut out some of his mistakes,” said Connor McDonagh, who backs Norris for the drivers’ title, on the Crash F1 podcast.

“I know Brazil was a little bit all over the place, he ran wide a couple of times.

“But some of his performances - from pole to win - have been at an incredible level.

“The gap he had to Oscar Piastri is underrated.

“People go on about Piastri being so close, but actually Piastri out-qualified him four times!

“I think Norris is the man to beat, and has the fastest car.

“The winner of the first race? Charles Leclerc, in a feelgood story for Ferrari.”

Lewis Hamilton backed for F1 title

A second prediction for the drivers’ title also tips Verstappen to lose his stranglehold over the top prize.

“I will say Lewis Hamilton for the win in Australia - he’s got an incredible record in Melbourne, and Ferrari are historically competitive there,” predicted Lewis Larkam.

“What a story that would be, to win on his Ferrari debut and replicate the feat that Fernando Alonso did.

“It would spur on this hype train.

“The drivers’ championship? If we are going bold, I’ll go for Hamilton…

“This is the move that he needed to rejuvenate himself.

“Last season there was an element that he checked out. It was strange timing, it made the situation odd, that we knew before the season that he would move to Ferrari.

“He was getting phased out of meetings, as you’d expect.

"Whether George Russell got preferential treatment with set-ups? We don’t know.

“It was one of his worst seasons in F1 statistically but when there was a sniff of a win, he took it!”

The F1 grid is expected to converge, in terms of competitiveness, in 2025 because it is the final year of the current engine regulations.

It means every team will be looking to 2026 and beyond, so we should see closer racing this season.

That might give Verstappen his hardest job to defend his title yet - or might give the Red Bull driver an opportunity to further prove his brilliance.