Fernando Alonso dismisses Lando Norris prediction: ‘Now he has a winning car…’

Fernando Alonso disagrees with Lando Norris’ claim that some midfield teams could join the fight at the front during the 2025 F1 season.

Williams and Alpine showed great pace throughout pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Carlos Sainz set the headline time on day two of the test, while Alpine threatened the top of the leaderboard on the final day.

With the rules remaining stable over the winter, many people expect this season to be tighter than ever.

McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes are expected to remain among the top four teams.

However, Norris believes some midfield outfits could join the fight at the front.

Alonso, who is set for a season in F1’s midfield with Aston Martin, disputed Norris’ suggestion.

Alonso said, as quoted by Motorsport Week: “Now that [Norris] has the winning car, he says that. When he was in the fifth or sixth team, he was saying that only one team will win all the races.

“So, this is a normal, confident speech, you know. So, it’s good for him, but I think it’s going to be difficult. Reliability is so good these days, there are not many retirements, there are not many incidents, strategies are quite defined.

“Even on Thursday before coming to the Grand Prix, you know exactly it’s going to be one stop, two stops, which tyre you will use.

“So, everything is so perfect now that it’s difficult to change or to make a race unpredictable. It has to be crazy weather or something like that.

“You know, hopefully there are multiple winners and it’s going to be a tight championship. Last year it was already a very good one and hopefully this year it’s even better.”

“Things will look similar to Abu Dhabi” - Alonso

Alonso feels the pecking order won’t change much compared to the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

That is potentially bad news for Aston Martin, which was outpaced by Haas and Alpine at the end of the season.

If Williams’ pre-season testing form is genuine, Aston Martin could fall further back.

“I have no prediction,” he added. “I didn’t follow the test. I know that Carlos was the fastest [on day two ] because I read all the Spanish news.

“Apart from that, I don’t know even today who is first and who is second.  I think they are all in a different programme. I know McLaren did a good long run and Carlos was first. All the rest of the teams, all the days and the teams and info, I’m not aware.

“I guess it’s difficult to believe that things will change so much compared to Abu Dhabi. Let’s put it that way. The first four races, I think that things will look similar to Abu Dhabi.”