McLaren learned from 2024 mistakes for Australian GP victory

Lando Norris was delighted after winning the thrilling wet-dry-wet Australian Grand Prix, particularly as McLaren had “got it wrong a lot last year” in similar circumstances.

The British driver was referencing his chances to win in both Canada and at Silverstone in 2024, where McLaren made mistakes on pitstop timings and tyre choices, but avoided similar mistakes as Norris turned pole position into the Melbourne win as the 2025 season commenced.

Norris finished ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, having soaked up pressure from the world champion early on and then his team-mate Oscar Piastri through the middle phase of the race, before the second McLaren spun down the order when the rain returned in the closing stages.

“We got it wrong a lot last year, so I guess we learned from our mistakes,” Norris said after climbing from his MCL39 after his fifth F1 career victory.

“We lost out on Silverstone and Canada through a race like this. So, we’ve just learned from our mistakes, I think.

“It’s still only around one of 24, but dealing with the pressure, dealing with Max, dealing with Oscar behind me, I was pushing the whole way through.

“I could relax inside, but I wasn’t relaxing from how much I was pushing.

“A tough one, so to not make overly too many mistakes, to not have a mistake that cost me anything, I guess I could take a little bit of credit for that.

“A tough challenging race, but I mean for McLaren, I need to give a big thanks because they’ve given me an amazing car. So, I have to start with them.”

Norris had to survive three safety car restarts – with the last coming just six tours from the flag and as Verstappen bore down hard with fresh tyres late on, after the two late safety car periods closed the field back up.

A mistake from Norris going too deep at Turn 6 got the Red Bull driver into DRS threat for the final three laps, but although he came close the world champion never made a move to try and take the lead.

“Just drive, I guess,” Norris replied when asked how he had dealt with Verstappen’s late pressure.

“I mean, Max was quick. I knew I had like good pace, but I made one mistake in Turn 6 and he got within the DRS – and the DRS around here is probably like a second or something.

“So, that allowed him to keep staying within that second and have a couple of like little looks.

“And I had to check my mirror a few more times than what I would have liked, but I stayed calm and I kept it together and I listened to Will [Joseph, Norris’s engineer who had warned him not to overdrive on the final lap], so that’s the most important thing.”