Nico Rosberg believes Lando Norris is as quick as Max Verstappen in terms of raw pace but the McLaren driver is battling with “inner demons.”

Norris was the only driver who looked likely to give Verstappen a battle for the title but with the Dutchman ultimately successful by 63 points, Rosberg believes Norris has areas he needs to improve on.

Nico Rosberg highlights Lando Norris’ ‘inner demons’

The 2016 World Champion suggested that Norris had the raw pace to match Verstappen but pointed to strange mistakes he has made this season, notably in Singapore where despite winning, he almost crashed out on two occasions.

“He has shown raw speed on a level, I would say, with the best,” Rosberg told the Sky Sports F1 podcast. “So even with a Max Verstappen, the raw speed is there. It’s very, very phenomenal.

“Where we’ve still seen a little bit of issues for him is he has some inner demons in his mind, which results in one or another mistake.

“The most notable was really Singapore where he was leading the race for 20 seconds and two times he almost crashed out.

“It was even a bit strange that it was so extreme. So he has to work on that a little bit still to just reduce one or another mistake, which is an area where [Oscar] Piastri is stronger.

“Piastri is not as fast in his peak, peak speed, but he’s just always consistent, always there, no mistakes.”

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Despite this suggested area of improvement, Rosberg did back Norris to be the favourite to win the title in 2025.

“Lando, I mean, he’s the favourite for next year now to win the championship,” Rosberg said,.

“Why not? There’s no reason why he shouldn’t be the favourite, right? Because at the end of this year, McLaren was the strongest car.

“He has been marginally stronger than Piastri within the team, so he should be the favourite.

“Verstappen doesn’t have the fastest car and he’s won two races since May. That’s nuts and of which one was just magic in the rain. So only one race, really in the dry that he has won since May.

“You’re not going to win the world championship in that form next year against Lando Norris, so I would say Lando is the favourite.”

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