McLaren “good everywhere”, Red Bull among chasing pack

Max Verstappen admits McLaren looks good across the board in 2025 as the reigning world champion believes Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes will trade blows in the battle for best of the rest.

Lando Norris won the first race of the season in Australia last weekend and will be looking to hammer home McLaren’s obvious pace advantage at the Chinese Grand Prix, with the year’s first sprint race also taking place in Shanghai.

Verstappen finished less than a second behind Norris for Red Bull in the changeable conditions in Melbourne, with the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli taking third and fourth, respectively.

With a fully dry weekend expected in China, Norris and Oscar Piastri will be hoping to show the true speed of the McLaren – although Verstappen is already clear on how good it looks.

“They’re super strong,” he said. “I mean, I have a lot of respect for what they have done. You know, already last year and now they’re very fast. Yeah, very all-round, good everywhere.

“So I think that is just a fact. Now how big the gap is or whatever is difficult to say. I think the clear picture that you saw was that McLaren was quite far ahead. Because I don’t think I’m an idiot in the wet, but in the first stint I didn’t really have a lot of chance to fight.

“I think in general we just need to be better as a whole, if you compare that to McLaren, they’re good everywhere.

“It’s impossible to really answer fully. I think myself, so Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari were all quite close. And probably will differ a bit track to track.”

Despite McLaren being tipped to dominate at least the early part of 2025, Norris said the car “doesn’t suit my driving style at all,” and that it is a “tricky car to drive and to put together a lap”.

Verstappen was in a similar situation last year, winning races at the start of the campaign while not being completely happy with his Red Bull.

“His own McLaren? Maybe he was joking,” the Dutchman replied when told what Norris had said. “I don’t want to compare scenarios. For sure, last year, when we started, I was already complaining that some bits were not to my liking, but we were still winning.”

Autosport says

In assessing his McLaren, Norris says that the car did not particularly suit his driving style – and that it didn’t necessarily want to be hustled into corners, as would be his preferred approach.

Instead, the car seems to be a little bit more passive into the corner and benefits from an early-to-conventional braking stance into the corner, allowing the early application of throttle on the exit.

Norris has vowed to drive the car the way it wants to be driven to extract lap time from it, rather than try to put his own stamp onto a car not necessarily ready to receive it.

Although a car might be difficult for one driver, it doesn’t necessarily make it a troubled car overall; it can still suit someone else’s style. But when two drivers with different styles find a car tricky, that might be the indication that all is not exactly well.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Consider Verstappen’s Red Bull last year. This was a car that was prone to snaps of oversteer and was genuinely difficult to handle; Verstappen managed to control it through the first half of 2024 with his counter-punches at the wheel, but the smoother style of Sergio Perez had no chance.

But even the RB20’s drawbacks proved too strong for Verstappen to ignore. This prompted a series of upgrades to try to bring the car back to the front, but it took a long time to truly understand the issues.

The MCL39 doesn’t appear to be snappy as such, or particularly egregious on turn in, but rather that it defies the drivers’ natural proclivity to see-saw at the wheel to find the apex and carry speed through the corner. It requires a bit more patience; but, as long as the drivers can handle it and it remains quick, why change it?

Additional reporting from Ronald Vording