Lando Norris’ complaint that the McLaren F1 car does not suit his driving style has been met with a laugh from Max Verstappen.

Widely tipped as the favourites for this year’s championship, Norris’ F1 2025 campaign got off to a perfect start at the Australian Grand Prix.

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Lining up on pole position ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri, the Briton clinched the win ahead of Verstappen, making it the first time since the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix that Verstappen has not led the Drivers’ standings.

Ending the Dutchman’s 1,039 days up in P1, Norris batted away questions about being the favourite for the championship.

“I’m not thinking about it,” he said in the build-up to the Chinese Grand Prix. “I don’t really care about it. It shouldn’t change anything I do. It shouldn’t change what the team does.

“I had one good weekend. People need to calm down a little bit. I’m focused on trying to do the same here.”

Norris’ call for calm came as the Briton revealed the MCL39 does not suit his driving style, going as far to say it has characteristics that he doesn’t like and has to drive around.

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“I’ve got to a point where I’ve just accepted that you can’t have really a car that suits your driving,” the 25-year-old explained.

“I stopped maybe asking so much for exactly what I want and more just willing to do whatever makes the car quicker. You know, it is probably a tricky car to drive and to put together laps. But clearly, it’s taken a step forward to last year.

“But then it’s my job to drive whatever car I get given in the end of the day. That’s why I’m here. It’s why McLaren wanted me because they believe I can drive it in a better way than others can.

“It’s similar characteristics [to last year’s car], and some of those characteristics I don’t like and do not suit the way I want to drive in an attacking way. It doesn’t suit me in terms of me wanting to push the entries and push the braking.

“It’s very weak, I would say, from that point of view. So not what I like, but at the same time, some of it is down to the adaptation of needing to change a little bit my driving styles every year.”

He added: “That’s kind of all I feel like I want, but I very rarely ever have what I need from the car from that perspective. The car can still win races. It’s not like if I don’t have what I need, it’s bad. I can still get the most out of the car if I don’t have what I want. But there’s just compromises.”

Told of Norris’ comments about his car, Verstappen was asked if it reminded him of his own complaints about his RB20 last season while still racing for one win after another.

“His own McLaren? Maybe he was joking,” the Dutchman replied when told what Norris had said.

“I don’t want to compare scenarios. For sure, last year, when we started, I was already complaining that some bits were not to my liking, but we were still winning.”

Although Verstappen finished the Australian Grand Prix less than a second behind Norris, the field was bunched up three times for restarts after a Safety Car while a small mistake on the penultimate lap from Norris gave Verstappen a bit of a run at him.

The reigning World Champion concedes Red Bull need to improve as a “whole” if they hope to take the fight to McLaren who are “good everywhere”.

“My balance in qualifying in Melbourne was not too bad. I don’t think the balance is the main issue. Just I ran out of tyres in the last sector, like overheating, and I think a lot of teams are struggling with that, but it just seemed like, like McLaren, it wasn’t as much.

“But yeah, I think overall, we know that on bumps and kerbs we’re not very, very good. Now Melbourne is not the bumpy strike, but still a few bumps in some areas, and that is definitely something that I picked up on.

“The rest of the corners, I think in the very high speed, we’re not too bad with our wing that we ran also in Melbourne. But then again, it just depends so much on how you set up the car. Sometimes it can be a bit better in high speed, sometimes we are better medium speed or whatever.

“But in general we just need to be better as a whole, you know, compared to, if you compare that to McLaren. They are good everywhere.”

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