by Lando Norris has admitted for the first time that he believes that he was the favorite that ends up his first World Cup after a statement victory at the rain price on Sunday on Sunday.
The 25-year-old British McLaren driver came from a wild, crazy and exciting seasonal opening races in Melbourne to put a title marker to his rivals.
The Max Verstappen from Red Bull was second and George Russell third for Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton only in eighth place after an overwhelming debut for Ferrari.
Before the race on the Sunday of 24 in this year, Russell, McLaren’s striking speed will make them practically unbeatable and claimed that the British team could already pay itself to draw their attention to the next season.
“I know that George made some comments that we can only concentrate on 2026,” said Norris.
“But if this is your mentality, it is wonderful because it is not the mentality.
“We know that we have a lot of work to do in this car, and when you relax, you failed. In Formula 1, when you start thinking that everything is good and groovy, you will be caught.
“But I think we are the favorites. We are to beat the team. The car flies. And there will be tracks on which we are even better. “
Norris’ title challenge released itself last season with a number of errors and team mistakes.
Verstappen in his inferior Red Bull made the championship with three rounds – and then reached Norris by claiming that he had won the title in McLaren of his rival.
In 2024, Norris criticized for bad starts and his team’s strategy calls were also not good enough, but both Norris and his team were in a nutshell in Albert Park.
Although Verstappen enjoyed a better start than both McLarens, Norris, as he had sworn, brought out his elbows by aggressively thriving his right to counteract the attack of the Dutchman.
Then, in round 44, when the rain arrived and Norris ran through the gravel in front of the penultimate corner, McLaren recognized the immediate must to change it in intermediate tires.
And even with a damaged car, Norris showed after his trip through the sand trap, in a nail -bite conclusion in chess and cleared the line only 0.8 seconds.
Norris continued: “Starting the season with a win is good enough, but it was in such a stressful race with which it is so easy to make a mistake, so easy to ruin everything.
“We worked very hard in winter to prepare for such a race because we thrown away many options last season.
“In Canada and Silverstone (both under changeable conditions) we were not the best in preparation and determination. That cost us. But today we were very, very crucial.
“The team calls me to the box (for between tires) half into a second before I had to box, even though I was still trying to save the car and ensure that I do not shake, was the right call and it was a call that brought me the race.”
With McLaren, the class of the field, Norris of teammates Oscar Piatri was under pressure.
In a phase, the Australian was throughout Norris before holding “position” from the McLaren pit wall.
Piatri was later said that he was free to run Norris, but when he ran in second place in round 44, he followed his teammate off the street and then landed on the penultimate corner in the grass.
He recovered to take the checkered flag in ninth place after he had a last round pass for Hamilton.
Zak Brown, Managing Director of McLaren, said: “We start the season very strongly. But as we saw last season, Max won six of the first seven races and then had a little drought, so we just have to continue what we do.
“We definitely have a very fast racing car, but we see how quickly things change in this sport.”
