Lando Norris enters the 2025 Formula 1 season with only one goal in mind.
Twelve months ago, neither Lando Norris nor McLaren would have anticipated the progress that they would make relative to their rivals in the paddock.
The 2024 Miami Grand Prix may well end up being the turning point that people look back on in Norris’ career.
Up to that point, Norris was known for having bundles of potential without a race win to show for it, and even the nickname ‘Lando No-wins’ was being used by some fans online.
However, with some help from the safety car, the Brit guided his McLaren home that day and Norris even received some praise from Max Verstappen but as the season went on, it became clear that the 25-year-old was the Dutchman’s closest rival in the drivers’ championship.
Ultimately, Norris fell short, with Verstappen accruing too many points at the beginning of the year to give him or any other driver on the grid a real chance of toppling the four-time champion.
Norris will know that 2025 is potentially the best chance he’ll get to win a championship of his own with F1’s regulations changing next year and McLaren holding a slight advantage over their rivals based on the end of last season.
However, Formula 1 expert and former Mercedes and Haas strategist Mike Caulfield was speaking on the Missed Apex Podcast about one skill Norris seems to have ‘forgotten’ in recent years.
Lando Norris has ‘forgotten’ tyre management skills he developed before F1 debut
Talking about how different drivers adapt to racing in Formula 1 and their development, Caulfield said: “It’s quite interesting, it’s generally the younger drivers now [who] seem to have that better feel of it, who have been in the F2, F3 series, who obviously don’t have to do more tyre management in their races because of the tyres they get given for them.
“And it’s quite interesting to see, actually, I think Lando used to be when he first came in. I’ve seen never worked with him personally, but when he first came into the sport he used to look to be really strong with his tyre management.
“And almost the further away he’s moved from his F2 racing, he seems to have forgotten certain aspects of what he used to do.
READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration
“Sometimes now I think he tends to overdrive, but it also depends on what kind of position you’re in as well.
“Like certain drivers, if they’re leading the race, are able to manage much better than if they’re trying to chase down a driver, for example, that ability to catch and pass, they’ll take too much out of the tyres doing it.
“They can’t manage it, they see a car in front and they want to catch as quick as possible and they take too much out of the tyres rather than playing that long game saying you’ve got 18 laps to catch him. This is your lap time drive to it.
“And some drivers can do that spot on and some drivers will just not, for example.”
Lando Norris drives McLaren’s 2025 car for the first time
With the F1 75 livery launch event just around the corner, Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri got their first taste of McLaren’s 2025 car during a filming day at Silverstone on Thursday.
Sporting a one-off camo livery, Norris drove several laps of the track before handing the car over to Piastri.
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Norris and Piastri have given their first impressions of the car, but it’s impossible to read too much into their brief running.
That will have to wait until pre-season testing begins in Bahrain and then the first race of the season in Australia.
Norris will know how fine the margins are going to be this year and if he can improve his tyre management skills as Caulfield suggests then that might just give him the edge over his rivals.
