Lando Norris issues blunt warning to Max Verstappen ahead of 2025 F1 season

McLaren’s Lando Norris has poured fuel all over his feud with Max Verstappen as he prepares to dethrone the F1 champ in 2025.

Lando Norris has issued a blunt warning to rival Max Verstappen ahead of the 2025 Formula 1 season.

Norris finished second in the driver standings in 2024 as Verstappen secured a fourth straight title.

Watch the biggest Aussie sports & the best from overseas LIVE on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.

The duo clashed on track multiple times throughout the season but the McLaren star was never able to come close to Verstappen’s lead.

With the new season just around the corner, Norris said he’s ready to take the fight up to the Red Bull superstar and will get his “elbows out” as he fights to secure a maiden Formula 1 crown.

Speaking at the launch of the MCL39 at Silverstone, the 25-year-old British driver pledged to toughen up.

Lando and Max had multiple run ins last season. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)

“I need to get my elbows out (against Verstappen) and show I am not willing to give him any positions,” he said. “I also have to be a smart driver. You have to be smart to go up against Max.

“It is always a lot harder when you are in the car, rather than when you rewatch it, and when I saw some of the things I did last year, I was like, ‘What the hell have I done that for? And what an idiot’.

“But at the same time, I want to say that I don’t need to go out and just prove something to him.

“I don’t need to take any unnecessary risks and don’t need to go down trying necessarily. I just keep focusing on myself.

“I don’t think you have to do anything special to try and beat Max.

“He’s quick, he’s aggressive, he’s one of the best ever.

“The easy way is just going out and being a bit quicker than him and staying ahead. That’s the obvious plan.

“You’ve just got to be smart. That’s the answer to it all.

“You have to be smart and you have to position the car well and also think of the long game sometimes.”

Norris (right) is ready to take the fight up to Verstappen. (Photo by SIMON WOHLFAHRT / AFP)

Norris’s McLaren team started last season slowly before an upgrade at the sixth round in Miami radically boosted their fortunes and allowed the Briton to take his first win. But that still left him 53 points behind Verstappen.

Norris attempted to claw back the deficit as Red Bull’s supremacy was eroded but his title bid ran out of steam following mistakes by both driver and team.

Norris, who completed a number of laps during a rain-hit promotional filming event at Silverstone on Thursday, admitted McLaren had the better car for most of the 2024 season.

“I have to do better, and I don’t need to be told that,” said Norris. “However, it will be a different mentality for Max if he is 50 points behind in the championship, versus being 50 ahead.”

Despite missing out on the drivers’ crown, Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri steered McLaren to their first constructors’ title since 1998.

Norris has been installed by bookmakers as the favourite to win the title ahead of the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 16.

Verstappen (front left) and Norris (front right) are predicted to battle it out for the F1 title. (Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty Images)

“I like that I have that pressure on my back but I am not feeling it,” said Norris. “I hope I can go out and make them some money.”

Australia’s Piastri, who finished fourth in the 2024 drivers’ standings, said he was “excited for the room for growth after two seasons in the sport”.

He added: “As a team, we can take great momentum into 2025 after such a brilliant year in 2024.”

McLaren Racing chief executive Zak Brown said it was too soon to know how their new MCL39 car would measure up against rival teams, though he was optimistic.

“We believe we have made further steps forward since the championship-winning MCL38 but we won’t know where we sit in the standings until we get into qualifying in Australia,” he said.

Pre-season testing takes place in Bahrain from February 26-28.

- with AFP

Originally published as Lando Norris issues blunt warning to Max Verstappen ahead of 2025 F1 season