Lando Norris Applies The Pressure - 'We Have No Excuses'

Being optimistic about the 2025 season, Lando Norris has revealed that McLaren has everything it takes to secure the Constructors' Championship and the Drivers' Championship. Thus, he now believes that there are "no excuses" left for not winning both championships.

Speaking at the F1 75 launch event at London’s O2 Arena, where all ten teams unveiled their 2025 liveries, Norris confirmed his confidence in McLaren's approach. After breaking a 26-year championship drought, McLaren invested heavily in optimizing its 2025 challenger, the MCL39 over the winter break. With the upgrades and lessons learned from last season, Norris is determined to claim his first title after narrowly losing out to Max Verstappen in 2024.

Speaking to the media at the event, the 25-year-old driver acknowledged that the team's past shortcomings were valid reasons for not winning races. However, he now believes McLaren has significantly raised its game. He said:

"I hope so for sure. After last year, I think we kind of have no excuses I guess.

"In the past we've had our fair share of honest and true excuses, I think this year we kind of don't have any. We have nothing to hide behind. We proved last year we have everything we need and everything it takes to fight at the top and be the best.

"If we're not at the beginning of the season, then we're just not good enough, and we've not done a good enough job. But that's certainly not how we're thinking of things. That's not how our mentality has been.

"I guess as we ended [last] season, our next season's already started. For all the guys and girls back in the factories, giving us a car which can compete, a lot of what Formula 1 is, is having a car that can compete."

Norris believes both he and teammate Oscar Piastri are prepared to fight for the championship, sharing full confidence in McLaren's potential. He added:

"I think we both as drivers, proved a lot last year in ourselves and in each other, of what we're capable of doing and when we do have a car that's capable of fighting for wins and championships, we're able to maximise it.

"So I think we probably both say we're ready and we're excited for that challenge, but we also have a whole team behind us who are also excited.

"They know they're capable of making a quick car, so we're excited for this challenges this season.

"Maybe in the past, we've got ahead of ourselves at times before pre-season, so we're definitely not doing that, but we're quite confident that we can start the season off in the best way and much better than we've done over the last six, seven years."