Lando Norris predicts biggest rivals in Chinese Grand Prix

Lando Norris has had a positive start to the 2025 Formula 1 season after he secured pole position for the Australian Grand Prix last weekend, managing to turn it into the first victory of the year after a challenging wet race.

Despite the strong start, the McLaren driver is yet to celebrate. He revealed during the press conference ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix that he thinks Red Bull and Ferrari will be more competitive in Shanghai.

When asked if he was carrying confidence through to China from Australia, Norris explained:

"I mean, I'm hoping we can do better, and I'm hoping it can be a bit easier. I think we had a great race, you know, our gap to our competitors halfway through the race was 15 seconds or something.

"So yeah, more likely that there was some safety cars that kind of brought them back into the the race, but we're hopeful. It's another race, it's a different weekend, so I wouldn't say we're confident that things are gonna be exactly like they were, and I expect to get a bit more competition from Ferrari this weekend and we saw how quick Red Bull have been, so, clearly they're not out of it.

"They're just as fast. I think when things are perfect like they were in qualifying, we have an advantage, but they're certainly not far behind."

The British driver managed to pull off a Grand Slam in Melbourne, taking pole position, the race win, and the fastest lap. However, he is still keen to improve.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

"I think as a driver, you're always at the limit of your car and what your car can do, so you're always trying to look out at places to improve," he explained.

"I guess I'm trying to look at things I can do better, you know, my start was good. Was it perfect? No. But it was clear where I lost some of my performance in the launch."

Interestingly, Norris revealed that the MCL39 is "extremely difficult to drive."

"And then just from a car point of view, you know, the car is doing and performing well, but it's still extremely difficult to drive. We know in certain conditions, like in the wettest conditions, Max was just as quick as us. In the dry conditions we were a bit better, so just making the car a little bit more predictable and a little bit more comfortable."

Given those challenges, Norris will be pleased to know that the Chinese Grand Prix weekend is expected to be dry.