With three-day F1 pre-season testing officially over, it is still too early to make a conclusive statement about which team will dictate the pace this year, although Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso have disagreed on some assessments.
After finishing second to Max Verstappen in 2024, McLaren’s Lando Norris is confident he is in the championship hunt this year after a productive pre-season testing where he went fastest on Day 1. The Briton also believed that this year will feature a very competitive midfield grid.
However, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso thought that the words of Lando Norris’ came from a place of confidence.
Norris discusses F1 2025 competition
During the F1 75 Live event on O2 Arena, Norris stated that he expects McLaren’s competitiveness to continue this season.
The Briton also stated the competition for victories might get more heated than previous years, with other teams getting in the mix.
“It already got pretty close at the end of last year, and you already started to see the middle of the pack catching up and getting closer and closer.
“I expect that to be even more the case over the winter and into this season, you’re probably going to have some winners that aren’t McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, or Red Bull, which I think is good for Formula 1 and good for the fans.
“I think it’s not going to be just the usual guys. It’s going to be a bit different this year; maybe not at the very beginning, but certainly through the season, we’ll see it probably shake up a little bit more.”
Alonso reacts to Lando Norris’ F1 2025 midfield claims
Fernando Alonso had more runs with the AMR25 on the final day after teammate Lance Stroll reported feeling unwell. The Spaniard commented that his car was a “step forward” from its predecessor.
On the final day of the pre-season testing in Bahrain, Alonso reacted to Norris’ statement in a media session. He believes the Brit’s words came from a place of confidence now that he has a competitive car.
“I don’t know; now that he [Norris] has the winning car he says that, When he was in the fifth or sixth team, he was saying that only one team will win all the races,” he quipped.
The two-time world champion drew the irony of Norris’ statement in the past that only one team would win all the races when McLaren was the fifth or sixth fastest. He stated that the statement was normal and confident speech.
Not enough variables
Alonso, however, is not entirely sure of Aston Martin’s chances in 2025 and predicted that the Silverstone-based team would be in for a “difficult season”.
“It’s going to be difficult, [because] reliability is so good these days. There are not many retirements. There are not many incidents.”
Coupled with the good reliability and the lack of incidents, Alonso also argued that strategies are pretty defined and everything is on point before they hit the track.
“Strategies are quite defined. Even on Thursday before coming to the Grand Prix, you know exactly it’s going to be one-stop, two stops, which tyre you will use.
“Everything is so perfect now that this is difficult to change or to make a race unpredictable. It has to be crazy weather or something like that.”
Nonetheless, Alonso wished for a good and tight championship with multiple race winners. F1 had seven different drivers winning a race in 2024, all of them on multiple occasions.
“Hopefully there are multiple winners, and it’s going to be a tight championship,” he added. “Last year, it was already a good one, and hopefully this year is even better.”
