02/10/2025
NEWS STORY
Lando Norris has admitted that Max Verstappen is now a challenger for the 2025 title, while the Dutchman insists he's taking it race-by-race.
Not too long ago it appeared the title was a two-horse race, and neither of them were prancing.
But a nightmare in Azerbaijan, not to mention outstanding performances from the Dutchman at Monza and again in Baku, has brought the four-time world champion back into the picture, even though he had previously written-off his own chances.
"He is genuinely a challenger," Norris told reporters in Singapore. "If you go back to the beginning of the season they were challenging us for the first six or seven races for wins, then we brought some upgrades and improved a little bit. But then they brought a couple of upgrades and that has put them on the same level," he admitted.
"We are still expecting to dominate and we come to these races with the goal and ambition of winning and wanting to dominate and continue the form we have shown all season," he continued. "But in Baku we had the car to win and we didn't. We had the chance to fight Max.
"At the round before in Monza they were too quick for us. And if there are some races coming up where he is too fast, which is very possible, because I expect them to be quick for many of the races this season.
"We will go to Las Vegas and other low-downforce tracks where we don't expect to be as great as we have been, so that is an opportunity for Red Bull," he admitted, "but we are just focusing on ourselves and maximising our performances."
Meanwhile, the Dutchman sought to play down talk of a fifth title. Told that Charles Leclerc had given him a 20% chance of claiming the 2025 crown, the Dutchman, when asked his chances, replied: "50%.
"Because I do or I don't," he added.
"From my side, honestly, I just see it as a race-by-race thing," he continued. "Sixty-nine points is still a lot, especially if you look at how the season has gone so far. McLaren has been incredibly dominant, that doesn't suddenly change.
"So for me, I'm not too stressed about anything," he insisted. "I'm just enjoying what I'm doing, having fun outside of it, having fun, and just trying to do the best I can every single time that I jump in the car.
"Some tracks naturally will be a bit better for us, some probably a bit worse, maybe this one a bit worse. If we win it, we win it, great. If we don't, we don't. Life goes on. I don't know, I'm just not too stressed about anything.
"There's nothing to lose really. As a team, we just approach it like that. We try to do the best we can, try to be more competitive, try to hopefully confirm that the direction we took with the car is more competitive, also on a track like this, and that's what we hope will happen. We'll see what happens from here onwards."
Considering that he had previously written-off his hopes for this season - as had Helmut Marko, asked if the fact that he is not being talked about as a genuine contender is a reflection of how well he has been performing, he replied: "Yeah, maybe.
"Of course, sometimes maybe it was a bit more difficult to show that in the middle of the season, but I think every time that you progress as a driver every single year, you want to become better or at least be similar to what you have achieved in the past, and I think we are doing that.
"The car has not always been nice or easy to drive, but lately it does seem that it's heading in the right direction, and actually with a car that is a bit more competitive and also a bit more predictable, you can show better things. I think that's quite normal. In general, of course, I'm very happy with the driving side of things throughout the whole season."