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Lando Norris has warned Max Verstappen he will get his “elbows out” as the McLaren driver fights to dethrone the Formula One world champion, while boldly declaring: “I don’t think you have to do anything special to try and beat Max.”
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Norris, 25, fell short in his quest to take his maiden crown last season after Red Bull’s Verstappen kept him at bay to land his fourth title in a row.
Norris and Verstappen clashed on track on multiple occasions as the Dutch driver guarded the championship lead he established after winning seven of the opening 10 races.
But speaking at Thursday’s launch of the MCL39 at Silverstone, which he hopes will propel him to title glory, the British driver pledged to toughen up.
“I need to get my elbows out (against Verstappen) and show I am not willing to give him any positions,” he said. “I also have to be a smart driver. You have to be smart to go up against Max.
“It is always a lot harder when you are in the car, rather than when you rewatch it, and when I saw some of the things I did last year, I was like, ‘What the hell have I done that for? And what an idiot’.
“But at the same time, I want to say that I don’t need to go out and just prove something to him.
“I don’t need to take any unnecessary risks and don’t need to go down trying necessarily. I just keep focusing on myself.
“I don’t think you have to do anything special to try and beat Max.
“He’s quick, he’s aggressive, he’s one of the best ever.
“The easy way is just going out and being a bit quicker than him and staying ahead. That’s the obvious plan.
“You’ve just got to be smart. That’s the answer to it all.
“You have to be smart and you have to position the car well and also think of the long game sometimes.”
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Norris’s McLaren team started last season slowly before an upgrade at the sixth round in Miami radically boosted their fortunes and allowed the Briton to take his first win. But that still left him 53 points behind Verstappen.
Norris attempted to claw back the deficit as Red Bull’s supremacy was eroded but his title bid ran out of steam following mistakes by both driver and team.
Norris, who completed a number of laps during a rain-hit promotional filming event at Silverstone on Thursday, admitted McLaren had the better car for most of the 2024 season.
“I have to do better, and I don’t need to be told that,” said Norris. “However, it will be a different mentality for Max if he is 50 points behind in the championship, versus being 50 ahead.”
Despite missing out on the drivers’ crown, Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri steered McLaren to their first constructors’ title since 1998.
Norris has been installed by bookmakers as the favourite to win the title ahead of the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 16.
“I like that I have that pressure on my back but I am not feeling it,” said Norris. “I hope I can go out and make them some money.”
Australia’s Piastri, who finished fourth in the 2024 drivers’ standings, said he was “excited for the room for growth after two seasons in the sport”.
He added: “As a team, we can take great momentum into 2025 after such a brilliant year in 2024.”
McLaren Racing chief executive Zak Brown said it was too soon to know how their new MCL39 car would measure up against rival teams, though he was optimistic.
“We believe we have made further steps forward since the championship-winning MCL38 but we won’t know where we sit in the standings until we get into qualifying in Australia,” he said.
Pre-season testing takes place in Bahrain from February 26-28.
