Norris expects more wins this year and believes “100%” in 2025 title bid

Lando Norris believes McLaren have every chance of being able to fight for the world championship titles next season after winning the Miami Grand Prix.

He became Formula 1 newest grand prix winner last weekend in Miami after McLaren introduced their first major upgrade package of the season.

Having achieved his first race win after over 100 grands prix starts, Norris said McLaren are “100%” capable of going further and becoming championship contenders next year.

“I’m saying that still with my feet on the ground – absolutely,” Norris told Sky during celebrations at McLaren’s Woking factory.

“I want to believe we’ve got two great drivers, as Zak [Brown, team principal] normally says. I’ve got an amazing team behind me, we have an amazing team behind us and we’re closer than ever.

“As I said at the beginning of this year, we can win races. I want to believe and I should have the confidence to say next year we can go for more, we can go for the next step. But, we have a lot more work to do and we’re working hard to try to achieve it.”

Asked if he believes he will change as a driver and become even stronger as a result of securing his first victory, Norris says both he and his McLaren team have more confidence in themselves following their success.

“I’m the same me, I’m the same person. I believed at the beginning of the year we could win races – and we have. We’ve won that first one. So have the faith.

“I have the confidence that we can do it as a team and I think we proved exactly that. I’m sure something’s changed or something inside has changed because I’m a race-winner now. But at the same time, it doesn’t change how I approach things. I’m still the same guy. I still want to win more. It makes you more hungry for wanting it more than I ever had before.”

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Following McLaren’s successful upgrade in Miami, Norris believes that there could be strong competition at the front of the field between his team, champions Red Bull and Ferrari over the remaining 18 rounds of the championship.

“We can win more races this year,” he said. “I think we can compete against Red Bull. I think we’re looking at an exciting season between us, Red Bull, Ferrari.

“We still have work to do. We’re not at the level that they are just yet. There’s going to be races that we’re competitive enough, but on average, we’re not quite where we want to be. I think we still have our feet on the ground, we know we have more work to do, but as soon as they’ve all had a little drink this morning, I’m going to tell them to get back to work so we can keep fighting even more.”

Norris will likely have to challenge world champion Max Verstappenif he is to become a world champion in the future. But he believes his good relationship with the Red Bull driver will not be soured if they were to become title rivals.

“We have respect for one another,” Norris said. “We get along. We’re not best friends – we don’t text each other every day, that kind of thing. But, we just have a lot of respect from him to me and me back to him.

“I look forward to it. I want to challenge him. I want to race against him. I want to battle, because I think he’s one of the best drivers ever in Formula 1. So if I can prove myself against him, I’m proving myself against one of the best and that’s exactly what I want to do.”

Celebrating his victory with the McLaren team, Norris says everyone at the factory will be more motivated to achieve more wins over the rest of the season.

“I was confident I could achieve what we have done this weekend and we can achieve it many more times this year and as you can see, what it means to them, it means just as much to me, and I want to continue sharing even more race wins and championships together with them,” he said. “So that’s our plan.”

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