Lando Norris will bid to dethrone Red Bull rival Max Verstappen and win the McLaren driver’s first Formula 1 world championship, but Jolyon Palmer is not yet convinced.
The 25-year-old emerged as a title contender for the first time in his F1 career last season as Norris came second to Verstappen. It was always unlikely that the McLaren man would beat his friend to the title after the Red Bull ace opened an early and decisive championship lead.
McLaren introducing upgrades at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix catapulted Norris from fighting for podium finishes to registering race wins. Yet the Briton was already 52 points behind the Dutchman after five rounds and ultimately ended the 2024 season 63 adrift after 24 rounds.
Lando Norris is not the 2025 F1 title favourite as he lacks Max Verstappen’s ‘championship instinct’
Norris and McLaren left a lot of points on the table with mistakes either on the circuit or with their strategy throughout the 2024 F1 season. But the Bristol-born star and teammate Oscar Piastri did enough to register McLaren’s first F1 constructors’ championship title since 1998.
READ MORE: Every error that cost Lando Norris points in his failed 2024 F1 title challenge
The Woking crew’s rise to fend off Ferrari for the crown is expected to see McLaren lead the field into 2025 with the regulations largely remaining the same. Karun Chandhok has named Norris the favourite to win the 2025 drivers’ title, too, but Palmer is not convinced he is yet.
Palmer believes Norris still lacks the ‘world championship instinct’ that Verstappen boasts to name the McLaren star as his favourite to win the 2025 F1 drivers’ title. It also remains to be seen how Norris handles McLaren being the pace setters from the start of a term this year.
“I don’t know if I’d yet call him my favourite just because it’s so difficult to look past Max at the end four world championships and the ruthlessness that Max can operate at,” Palmer explained during the live commentary for the official F1 testing broadcast (27/02 13:04).
“You can sometimes say the ‘world championship instinct’ that [Max’s] able to pull the right cards when he needs to. And we haven’t yet seen that from Lando. But it’s a different year for Lando, starting from scratch with everyone else on zero, in what could be the best car.”
Jolyon Palmer’s ‘gut feeling’ is Max Verstappen is the favourite for the 2025 F1 title
Verstappen winning the drivers’ title this season would see the Red Bull ace become just the second person to ever win five championships in a row after Michael Schumacher for Ferrari from 2000 to 2004. Juan Manuel Fangio and Lewis Hamilton won four titles in a row at best.
READ MORE: The best moments of Max Verstappen’s career in Formula 1
It is also Verstappen who Palmer thinks is the real pre-season title favourite in 2025 as unlike Norris the 27-year-old has proven his title-winning credentials. The Red Bull ace has also put on record his ability to fight through the field, which Palmer thinks will be crucial this season.
Palmer added (27/02, 13:11): “He’s so good in the melee. The amount of times that we’ve seen Max start from outside the top five and he’s gaining two, three places on the first lap.
“It’s very rare he comes through without making gains. And with the tightness of the field, it will be expected that all of the top drivers will have days where they’re not qualifying in the top five. And then it’s how you make the most out of that Grand Prix to get some big points.
“That’s where we’ve seen so much out of Max that my gut says he’s my favourite still heading into the year.”
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