Lando Norris has invited Max Verstappen to test the MCL39, but has warned him that he’ll be disappointed as the McLaren is not the rocket ship that he claims it is.

After back-to-back Grand Prix victories for the McLaren driver line-up of Norris and Oscar Piastri, Verstappen pulled one back at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Lando Norris: I’ll be excited to see the disappointment on his face

The Red Bull driver beat the McLaren team-mates to pole position, taking the coveted grid slot by 0.012s ahead of Norris, before managing the race to cross the line 1.4s ahead of the championship leader.

In doing so, Verstappen slashed Norris’ lead in the standings to a solitary point at the start of a season in which rivals have talked up McLaren’s on-track advantage.

Verstappen did that after Suzuka, claiming that if he was behind the wheel of the MCL39, he’d be out of sight.

More on the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix

👉 Our bold predictions for the Bahrain Grand Prix

👉 Bahrain Grand Prix: How to watch the race in the UK

Speaking afterward about his pride at how Red Bull has dug deep to help him deliver the result, the four-time F1 World Champion jokingly told Viaplay that, if he was driving the faster McLaren, things could be very different.

“I’m very happy with what I’m doing right now,” he told Viaplay. “But I could think what would happen when I would be in that other car.”

Asked “the McLaren?”, he replied: “Yes, you wouldn’t see me anymore!”

The journalist joked, “You would have been in Tokyo already!”

“Exactly!” was Verstappen’s response.

But when Verstappen’s claim that he could get more out of the McLaren than the current team-mates was put to Norris, the Briton rejected that.

He even went as far as to say Verstappen would likely be disappointed as the car is not the rocket ship he claims it is.

“I don’t mind, he can say what he wants,” said the McLaren driver. “I don’t care, honestly.

“Everyone can say what they want and believe what they want.

“I believe both Oscar and myself are good drivers. I don’t believe he is, he’s maybe better at some things, but he is not better in every area.

“I have a lot of respect for Max, but I also know some things are not true.

“I would love, he can come and test our car any day that he wants, and I’ll be excited to see the disappointment on his face after he gets out.”

As for his expectations for the Bahrain weekend, Norris believes it could be a tricky weekend for the Woking team as the characteristics of the circuit do not suit the MCL39.

“I go in with no expectations whatsoever,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher. “I don’t need that weight on my shoulders. I don’t care about any of these things.

“For me at the minute, I care about my preparation to go into Practice One and figure out what’s the best tyres, or what feels good, what feels bad. Some of the things that we’re trying on the car to kind of get my feelings back into a better position. That’s also a priority for me.

“I have no expectations of, I don’t need any expectations of what to expect going into a weekend, I just have my general expectations, which I don’t think we’ll have a big advantage here.

“I think our advantage will be lessened compared to previous weekends, a trickier track, a slower speed circuit, which has not been as favourable for us, and it’s where the car is in a trickier state compared to what we had potentially last year.

“So I still just expect a good competition from Ferrari, Mercedes, and I even think the midfield pack will probably be a bit closer than to us this weekend. So I expect a difficult weekend. I don’t expect any easy ones.

“Yes, the car is good, and yes, the team are doing an amazing job, but it’s close, like you seen the past few weekends, and Red Bull also a good car, and Max is Max, and we saw Charles and Lewis and the other guys around. So I still expect tough competition.”

Read next: Max Verstappen responds to McLaren rear wing footage reposted by father Jos