Max Verstappen’s Red Bull data revelation highlights the massive task facing Lando Norris in 2025

Max Verstappen is enjoying one of the most dominant periods in the history of Formula 1. The 2024 title was his fourth in succession, tying some all-time greats.

Verstappen matches the longest streaks of Lewis Hamilton (2017-20), Sebastian Vettel (2010-13) and Juan Manuel Fangio (1954-57). Only Michael Schumacher (2000-04) has put together a longer sequence.

No specific details about the 2025 cars have surfaced just yet. But they will be much the same as their predecessors, with minimal changes to the regulations.

Theoretically, that makes Lando Norris the likeliest challenger to Verstappen. Norris was the runner-up in 2024 and his McLaren team were arguably fastest for the final three-quarters of the season.

But what will it take to beat one of the best drivers ever, who seems to be at his peak? The easiest answer is a clear car advantage, but even then Verstappen shouldn’t be counted out.

At the start of his 10-race winless run following the Spanish GP, the Red Bull superstar led the standings by 69 points. By the end of the season, Norris had only taken six points out of that advantage.

Max Verstappen just showed Lando Norris he’s far more than a rapid driver

Verstappen seems to be a driver without any real weaknesses. While Norris matched him for pole positions in 2024, it’s very rare that he fails to maximise his car’s potential over a single lap.

Indeed, he thrashed Sergio Perez 23-1 in qualifying last year, and since Daniel Ricciardo’s exit, he leads the overall qualifying head-to-head against his teammates 117-11. He’s arguably even better in the races, with a pole-to-win ratio of 40:63.

But in an interview with De Telegraaf, Verstappen showed that he has the engineering mind to go with his supreme racing instincts. He revealed that he spotted Red Bull’s core problem when he was shown data from the 2024 season.

He was attentive to even the smallest details and influenced the team’s development direction. This underlines the scale of the task facing Norris – he’s up against a truly complete package.

“I saw some graphs at one point when we were looking at the data,” he said. “I saw certain aerodynamic shifts in how we entered the corners, turned in and also in terms of ride heights. Different from the car from the year before.

“I said: ‘Hey, it’s very clear that this and this is the problem, isn’t it?’ And that was right, I heard. I had not seen those lines, those graphs, before. I said then that it was clear what we had to work on, because of course the engineers know exactly what had been changed compared to the car from last year.”

Max Verstappen just contradicted himself about 2024 Lando Norris title battle

Norris may have to resort to psychological warfare to beat Verstappen next year. If there is one potential vulnerability, it’s his occasional tendency to become hot-headed behind the wheel.

This has potentially played a role in some of the incidents involving the world champion in recent times. Heading to Bahrain, no driver has more penalty points on their licence than his eight.

Verstappen says Lewis Hamilton was a more ‘stressful’ opponent than Norris given the differing nature of the two seasons. But that contradicts his admission on the Talking Bull podcast.

His girlfriend Kelly Piquet said Verstappen’s hands were ice-cold before the Sao Paulo GP. Norris had clearly made him nervous, but he missed a season-defining opportunity as he fell to sixth, with his title rival charging through from 17th to win.