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Lando Norris: The 2025 Title Contenders
Lando Norris: The 2025 Title Contenders
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About this episode
Lando Norris's 2025 championship campaign is dissected, highlighting his impressive seven wins and 17 podiums despite McLaren's setbacks. The hosts discuss his highs, like dominant performances in Brazil and Mexico, and lows including costly mistakes and mechanical failures. They debate how team errors, especially in Las Vegas and Qatar, have jeopardized his title chances. The episode explores Norris's resilience, consistency, and the intense three-way fight with Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen, emphasizing the drama of a season where McLaren's reliability could ultimately decide the championship outcome.
Topics:
lando norris
2025 formula one championship
mclaren team issues
race wins and podiums
mechanical failures
key race moments
title contenders comparison
team strategy errors
driver consistency
abu dhabi finale
Cars:
Dodge Charger
It's time for the third and final bonus episode this week, looking at our 2025 title contenders. Today, we're talking about the man who remains in pole position to secure his first ever Championship - but can Lando Norris do it? Or, more worryingly, can McLaren do it?!
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy.
Thanks for joining us for this third and final championship
Decider preview series,
where we've been talking about how we've got to a three-way fight
for the title on the final weekend of the season.
Make sure you scroll back in your podcast feed
to hear our episodes on Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri,
if you haven't already.
Today, we're here to talk about Lando Norris.
Let's head to Lando Norris.
The championship leader has seven race victories as well,
all three of them do.
The victories came in Australia, in Monaco, in Austin,
in the UK Silverstone, Hungary, Mexico, and Brazil.
He has 17 podiums to his name this season.
And Lando Norris should, in theory,
we should be talking about him being world champion right now.
If it wasn't for McLaren, we know that.
We've said that many times on the podcast already.
But Lando's season on the face of it
has not been the easiest for him.
He's had moments where he struggled with the car,
with the handling, whereas Oscar was thriving,
especially in that sort of from race, what would you say?
Well, as soon as Oscar went on that streak from Bahrain,
that was when Lando was just not able to get
on the same sort of form as Oscar.
Overall, he has put together a great campaign, for sure.
He's had three no-point scores,
of course, one being the disqualification,
the other two being Canada,
which was absolutely his fault,
and Zandvoort, which absolutely wasn't his fault.
I don't know how Lando, each week that McLaren let him down,
that he just resets.
What must be going through his head right now?
How does he have confidence going into the last race?
I don't know.
Yeah, it's crazy.
The season that Lando's had has been so bizarre, really.
You know, the story of his season has been
Lando essentially winning in Australia,
resisting the pressure from Max while Oscar went off
and thinking, oh, look, that's a really good drive from Lando.
Like, he can resist this pressure.
And then going into a run where, like, China Bahrain Saudi,
he was making mistakes and things,
like Bahrain, he made some errors.
Saudi crashed in qualifying,
where obviously Oscar won the race.
And there was obviously a lot of talk about, like,
can Lando actually do this?
He's feeling now, and it looked like Oscar was the top,
well, was the top McLaren driver.
And then, you know, it gets even worse in Canada
where he collides going for a move on his teammate.
And thankfully, well, not for him,
but thankfully for the team, he doesn't take Oscar out the race.
But then he does go on this, you know, great run.
And then it all goes wrong again in Zandvo,
and I think this is going to be really hard for him
to catch Oscar Piastri now in the same car.
Yeah, he falls behind in Canada, doesn't he?
And then we question, that was the moment.
I remember so many people jumping on, Oscar's going to be
world champion, he's going to do this, you know,
Lando's making too many mistakes, yada, yada, yada.
Lando then bounces back with a first, first, second, first,
just about puts him back in, like, contention with Oscar,
and then his engine fails.
Yeah, and in Zandvo, the crazy thing is after that,
obviously there's the contentious moment in Monza.
But we then went into Baku,
and of course all the headlines were that Oscar
had a really, really poor race,
but Lando was getting a lot of stick.
I guess quite rightly that he didn't make the opportunity,
he didn't take that opportunity of his title rival
because Max was out of it at this stage.
Bagging as many points as possible,
he was stuck behind other cars, he wasn't making moves.
And then he kind of went into this kind of phase
in the next couple of races where it was almost like this
silent, like, championship contender
where all the talk was, can Oscar hold on
or is Max going to win?
And we said, that's going to help Lando, I think, massively.
And since then, you know, he's been brilliant.
And I think, you know, his best moments,
it's just how consistent he has actually been.
Even those races where he gets stick
for like finishing second and it's not exciting
or he's not going for moves and stuff,
points when you're championships.
And I don't think it's on him that he's got the points
tell he's got because McLaren have absolutely
screwed him in the last year.
They screwed him, he'd be world champion right now,
which I'd like to remind people because
I feel it's, you know, quite unfair on Lando
that he's having to go all the way to the wire.
So many points with it.
Yeah, he has.
And McLaren better be getting him a serious Christmas present,
especially if he doesn't win this world championship somehow.
I would be gutted for Lando if that was the case.
Let's go to his best moment of the season.
What was the standout for Lando where we thought,
damn, he's got it.
For me, it's been towards the end of the year, for sure.
Brazil was fantastic from him.
It was such a difficult weekend.
You had horrible conditions, a place that craziness happens
and Lando could have easily succumbed to the pressure
of having to get this title across the line.
So Brazil is 100% a vote for me.
And then again, I kind of go all the way back to Australia
as well as a moment where he took it to Max Verstappen
and he won in the rain.
I remember there were some mistakes on the way to winning.
A few things we went, oh, maybe not.
But he won there and that was kind of a moment of, right,
Lando is here to play and he's here to take this
potential championship.
But I think if I'm going to choose one, it has to be Brazil.
I will go between, it's between Mexico and Brazil for me
because I think those are the most impressive victories
for me because as we mentioned,
he kind of quietly got under the radar
and he was still in that championship fight.
He didn't have the amazing form that Max did,
but he was taking points out of Oscar consistently
and had a lot more pace than Oscar.
And then he goes into Mexico and I think it's Mexico,
he got an amazing start,
which is something that's been his Achilles heel.
He didn't worry about,
he was a very, very difficult track to basically lead
from being on pole position into turn one.
Wins the raise from pole and now it looks like,
okay, he's looking very good.
Then you go into Brazil and yeah,
Brazil is such a strong moment
because there was all this talk of like,
it's raining, it's Brazil,
of course Max is going to win.
And actually, you know, he wins the sprint,
he wins the main race, takes pole position.
Absolutely brilliant form.
And after those two wins,
all he had to do was score few points
and he's been disqualified and finished fourth.
So, and that's of course, yeah,
the team errors that have cost him,
but realistically, Brazil should have been
that drive where it's like,
right, he's won the world championship now.
But unfortunately for his team, that's not in the case.
McLaren went now.
We won a title finale.
It's fun that way.
So, thank you McLaren again.
Let's go to worst moment of the year for Lando.
Tommy, what are you going to lock in?
There's a few, obviously we mentioned Baku.
The funny thing about Baku is that
if he wins the title by a few points,
these kind of non-risky moves where everyone said,
oh, he's not going for the moves, not doing it here.
And this is how a Formula One championship plays out,
doesn't it?
Like these moments where it's like,
oh, he missed out by a few points.
If he'd overtaken here, he would have done this
or he would have done that.
I think you've got to go back to Saudi,
the crash in qualifying.
Then he went into the race
and I think he spent a long time
unable to pass Charles Leclerc.
Meanwhile, his teammate is just romping home
for victory to make it, you know,
his third victory of the season.
And that was a really low moment for Lando,
I think, just from the fact that
his form had really dipped
after a brilliant win in Australia
and you thought, okay, he has turned it around.
And then went back into this kind of
error-prone driver again.
Obviously he's turned that around now.
But I think Saudi was probably, for me,
like the lowest where it's like,
oh, wow, Lando's like really struggling
with this car, he's not finding his groove.
And of course, at that stage,
Oscar was just flying.
So my moment for worst event
for Lando this year has to be Canada.
I think the movie pulled on Oscar
was really poor, crashes into the back
of his teammate, loses.
I think it was a P5,
I think it was P5 at the time.
So in terms of point swings,
that's 10 points just lost through
a fault that was completely on him.
It depends how you package it.
So that's my error, I would say,
of the year for Lando.
In terms of worst moment
that might not be his fault is Las Vegas.
He did everything he needed to do in Las Vegas
to have enough of a championship lead
going into the last two rounds.
On a track, they're not that good at either.
Taken away from him, exactly.
He did absolutely everything.
And to remove all those points
away from him due to a team error
is a disaster.
So that's from that side,
but in terms of something for Lando's performance
I would say Canada.
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Right.
What moment could be the thing
that costs him the title?
I feel like these can sometimes blur
the lines between worst moments of the year
and the thing that costs him the title
Las Vegas.
If Lando does not win the world championship
it is Las Vegas and it is Qatar.
Qatar is obviously a strategic
on the go
era from McLaren which I still
do not believe that they
thought it through at all.
Clearly they didn't because
they were the only team not to pit.
But Las Vegas
is such an
era where you got
obviously hindsight is a wonderful thing.
But why are they risking it anyway?
There's clearly been an oversight there
from McLaren and how they look
at the cars and all the telemetry
they get. They know the load
that is being put through the car.
They can see the cameras.
They can see the sparks.
Why are they risking
it at all?
Even if they finish fourth
and fifth, fifth and sixth
in Vegas and lose all the pace by running
the car a bit higher to not run
the risk of being disqualified it doesn't matter.
Lando has a much bigger
gap going into
the last two races.
So Las Vegas
will be my answer.
Yeah, there'll be people
the Lando Norris
crew of just hating
on him for every single reason
unfairly saying like
he lost points here, lost points there.
But realistically
say like Canada for example
but realistically
it's had the engine failure
where that's a McLaren failure on him
Vegas, the failure
by McLaren and then
Qatar again where he's finishing third
so it's not going to be a huge
points difference in Qatar
really but obviously it's still
a few points through a
McLaren blunder.
It's got to be the failure
in Zandvoort to have a mechanical failure
when you're running P2 is big in a championship fight.
And Vegas
because yeah, it has to be Vegas
if they lose this title
it's that is the
that will be if they lose this title
unless they do something again
in Abu Dhabi the
2007 Lewis Hamilton
kind of why have they left him out on
the canvas of his tyres
when all you had to do was cruise
home to a P5 and win the championship
and equally Lando had the championship
won at Brazil
and the only reason
that could have bought Max in is if he won
the race and he got a no score
and Lando finished second on the road at a track
that McLaren aren't particularly good at
drove a great race
brilliant pole position in the wet
and bagged 18 points
and then they were taken away through
an error so
yeah, I think
at the end of the day
Max of course like I want
Max to win
being a Max's up and fan shop
but what I just want to say
like it would be absolutely
devastating like for Lando to lose it
by another McLaren error again
because
you know, wherever your
allegiances lie
to have like
pretty much the title
won like same as like Lewis Hamilton
like 2007 and stuff and have that
title won to lose it
through no fault of your own
would be an absolute
you know, kicking the
nuts to say the least
like it would be awful
it would be awful, it would be
it would feel terrible for Lando
and that's not how
we want to see this championship play out
because I think it will leave
probably not for you a bitter taste Tommy
but it will in some ways
when you analyse the last few races
you'd feel like Lando was kind of robbed
of a championship that was going to be his
and he's lost it through no fault of his own
but fingers crossed, McLaren
saw it all out, they do a 1-2
for their sake, of course, not for entertainment's sake
and then
the championship isn't
questioned as to
who deserved it, who didn't deserve it
etc. although that conversation
unless Lando wins the title
by 5 points and then the Oscar
Piestre Mons the Switch will be
World War 3 in the media
as long as Oscar would have to finish
5 points behind
wouldn't he rather than
that's what I said, 5
you said to win by 5 but obviously from
Oscar Piestre as opposed to Max Verstappen
who is the closest competitor to Tommy
I know you're glass half empty mate
he is second in the championship
percentage if you can do maths
we'll find out if Tommy can
my likelihood for Lando Norris
winning the world championship in Abu Dhabi is 65%
the reason why it's no higher
than that is because I don't trust McLaren as far as I can throw them
right now and
if Lando has a working
team that does everything he needs
them to do in Abu Dhabi it probably
be up at 90% but this is
factoring in everything 65%
and mine is almost 90%
85% if I've done the maths correctly
5 plus 10 is 15
good stuff
look
it's in his hands still
and this is the only reason it's not 100%
it was in his hands in Vegas
in his hands in Qatar
and
it's changed completely of course
and
it can only really be
a McLaren
failure that could
do something to stop him winning this title
failure of the car or operationally
operationally because
the reason I think it's so low as well
is like
Abu Dhabi is a track where
you make an error you're just going off into the runoff
so it will take
something crazy
from McLaren
maybe or something for it to go wrong for Lando
because it's his best
one of his best
maybe even his best on the calendar
along with Austria
in terms of like
his performances there
and obviously he was brilliant there last year
won comfortably
and drove so well
so yeah
it's surely got to be Lando's
but this season has thrown so many curveballs
which is why it's not 100%
exactly Lando's results
at Abu Dhabi are
8th, 5th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 1st
of course
didn't have a championship winning car
for a lot of those times
but that is the
record he has
will he have another win to his name
he won't care as long as he wins the world championship
and that is it
thank you everybody for tuning in
to this little special bonus episode
chatting about the three
title protagonists
will it be Oscar Piastri
will it be Max Verstappen
who takes home the 2025
Formula One World Championship
Tommy, final thoughts
final thoughts, I just can't believe
we're in this situation with
three drivers winning the title
thank god
sorry, being in the title
my brain is
they've all won it
just take it all they can have a third of the trophy each
that's what McLaren would like wouldn't they really
just give it to both their drivers
and they don't have to have a worry
they want Max to have it
give it to Max so that neither of them have anything
then that is fair that is fair, yeah true
okay, yeah, come on Max
come on McLaren
there's one more in here
thank you everybody for joining us
across these three episodes
we'll be back with the final
predictions episode of the season
another championship battle
that has somehow gone right down to the wire
see you then
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