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Lando Norris says he needs to get his “elbows out” but also be “smart” in his battles with rival Max Verstappen on track this year.
Norris drove McLaren’s new car, the MCL-39, at Silverstone on Thursday as they became the first team to unveil a 2025 challenger.
Norris said: “I need to get my elbows out and show I am not going to willingly give him positions but I also have to be a smart driver – you have to be smart to go up against Max.”
The Briton had a series of wheel-to-wheel battles with Verstappen last year, and became progressively more effective in them as the season developed.
They crashed together in Austria in June, Norris was penalised in the United States in October, and then drew Verstappen into driving that earned the Dutchman two 10-second penalties in the following race in Mexico.
Norris said: “I don’t need to go out and prove anything to him. I don’t need to take unnecessary risk and go down trying. I don’t think you have to do anything special to beat Max.
“He’s quick, aggressive and one of the best ever, but the easiest way is just being a bit quicker and staying ahead. You just have to be smart and that’s the answer to it all, and think of the long game sometimes.
“There are things I definitely need to tighten up but the main thing that’s going to change this year is we need more points at the beginning and that will change the fight ahead.”
Norris was 52 points behind Verstappen after the Red Bull driver dominated the start of last year, and ended the season 63 points adrift as the Red Bull driver took his fourth consecutive drivers’ championship.
Norris said: “We are talking about going up against one of the hardest, attacking-defence guys you can ever go up against. Like we saw in Mexico, [he is prepared to] sacrifice himself for the overall outcome, and when that’s the mentality of a driver it is a very difficult one to ever come on top of when you are 50 points behind.
“So the main thing that’s going to change this year is I just need more points at the beginning and hopefully it’s the other way around.
“With how he drives, and the risks he takes, and the aggressiveness he has, there was almost no way I could come back from the deficit I had.”
Norris added that in the upcoming season McLaren want to “start off on the right foot”.
“That would change the championship fight – but still in the mentality of taking things one step at a time,” he said.
Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri both drove the new car at a cold and damp Silverstone. The car was painted in a camouflage paint scheme – the official livery will be revealed at F1’s season launch event at the O2 in London on 18 February.
Norris said that although conditions meant it was too early for conclusions, the car felt “normal”.
He added: “Let’s say that’s the first good step, because the team have been quite innovative with some of the designs.”
Team principal Andrea Stella said McLaren had “tried to raise the bar in many areas, including the fundamental layout”.
‘2025 car should be decent step forward’
McLaren’s progress through the last two seasons has been a stand-out in F1. They started the 2023 season close to the back, became contenders at the front with an upgrade midway through the year, and then won the constructors’ championship for the first time in 36 years last season.
Stella said McLaren had managed to continue with the progress they had shown in that period.
“I’m pleased we could keep the sort of rate of development we have had over the last two years,” he said. “The 2025 car on the paper should be a decent step forward.”
He added: “We evaluated very carefully. We needed be conscious as to how much we wanted to innovate but we went for a relatively challenging approach in terms of the innovation in this car. This is primarily about aerodynamic efficiency.”
Stella said he was confident that Norris could take the next step and mount a season-long title challenge.
“I saw Lando growing through the season at a very fast rate,” Stella said. “He was already an incredible driver and he showed it immediately, in Miami as soon as he has the car to win he delivered. And in terms of points he scored as much as Max from Miami onwards.
“The ability to grow has been quite impressive, the battle with Max in Austria and Austin, and Mexico, think how much he adapted.”
Towards the end of 2024, McLaren asked Piastri to be prepared to back Norris’ title bid if the circumstances arose but they start the new season on an equal footing.
“We have two drivers in a position to succeed,” Stella said. “If anything the pressure is on the team to ensure we have a car that can deliver podiums from the start.
Piastri, who won two grands prix last year, said: “We are going to be racing each other from the start. We are all starting from zero.
“I want to win the world championship this year and hopefully we have a car capable of doing that from the start.
“We will be able to race each other and we have shown we can race each other hard but cleanly. As long as we are not taking points off the team, that’s fine.”