McLaren Racing’s Lando Norris arrives at the 2025 F1 Qatar GP with a genuine shot at securing his first Drivers’ Championship. Sitting atop the standings with 390 points, the task is simple: outscore Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen by two points to seal the title. As the season’s final sprint weekend begins, Norris is on the brink of making history as McLaren’s most experienced F1 driver.
Despite last weekend’s costly setback in Las Vegas, he approaches Qatar with the determination to claim the title this week. Speaking in his Thursday print-media session, the 26 year-old discussed the challenges posed by an in-form Verstappen and his mindset as he inches closer to claiming his maiden championship.
In-form or off-form Verstappen will always be a threat
Heading into the weekend, Verstappen trails Norris by 24 points. Throughout the entire season, the Briton said that he’d treated the four-time World Champion as a genuine threat all season, regardless of his points deficit. While Norris stands a real chance of claiming the title in Qatar, he explained how nothing in McLaren’s approach changes now.
“I mean, we’ve treated him as a threat the whole year, even when he was a few more points behind, you know. Every briefing we had before every race, you know, we always have our little team meetings, every single race we treat him as a threat because we know what he’s capable of, we know what Red Bull is capable of.
“So therefore nothing changes now, because he’s still the threat he’s always been through the whole year so no, nothing changes from anyone’s side, you know, from engineers, mechanics, myself, we treat it very normally.”
Especially when the team has been performing at such a high level, he added that there’s no sense in changing their approach now. He stressed that they fully understand the areas that need improvement, but nonetheless sees no reason in treating this weekend any differently from the rest.
“There’s no point trying to treat it any differently because we’ve been doing a good job and I’m very happy with the job we’ve all been doing. We know what areas we need to do better, we know what things we need to improve on this year, next year, all of the standard stuff. So I really try and not treat it any differently because there’s no point, nothing doesn’t need to be treated any differently, so.”
“I feel relaxed” – Norris on his championship pursuit
Despite holding a 24-point lead in the championship, Norris said he feels no different now than he did when he was the one chasing the leader. Even with Verstappen and Red Bull’s strong form, the Briton said he remains just as relaxed now as he was when he trailed by 35 points, crediting the calmness in him as one of his strengths in this fight.
Norris said: “I mean it’s easy to look at it that way, but I don’t think it changes, I feel like how I am now feels the same as before Mexico when I wasn’t leading. So it feels the same as Austin when I still felt good in the car, but Max still won the race, so I really don’t feel any different in the car from before I was leading to now when I’m leading. And yeah, I don’t know, obviously you keep bringing it up and that’s probably the most I think about it is when you guys talk about it all the time, so otherwise it doesn’t affect anything.
“But I know that they’ve been strong, like I said they’ve been strong many many times, especially since Monza they’ve had a great run of form. But I feel relaxed, I feel as relaxed as I was before when I was 35 points behind the lead and I feel the same when I’m 24 points ahead, so that’s my strength for now.”
