Lando Norris h꧃as the pace and the machinery to win the F1 drivers’ championship this season, our experts predict.

McLaren’s Norris fought valiantly last season but fell short against Red Bull’s Max Verstapp🌃en, 🔯who racked up his fourth title in a row.

But McLaren ended 2024 with F1’s fastest car which should give Norris hope to build an early advanꦍtage against Verstappen this year.

🎃“The pace🔯 he showed at the end of the year, he really cut out some of his mistakes,” said Connor McDonagh, who backs Norris for the drivers’ title, on the Crash F1 podcast.

“I🧸 know Brazil was a little bit all over the place, he ran wide a couple of tim🌱es.

“But some of his performances - from pole to win - have been at an incr🔜edible level.

“The gap he had to Oscar Piastri is underrated.

“People go on about Piastri being so close, but actually Piastri ou☂t-qualified him four times!

“I think 𝓀Norris is the man ♒to beat, and has the fastest car.

“The winner of the 𝓀first race? Charles Leclerc, in ജa feelgood story for Ferrari.”

Lewis Hamilton backed for F1 title

A second prediction for the dr༺ivers’ꩵ title also tips Verstappen to lose his stranglehold over the top prize.

“I will say Lewis Hamilton for the win in Australia - he’s got an incredible record in Melbourne, and Ferrari are historically competitive there,” predicted L📖ewis Larkam.

“What a story that would be, to win on his Fer💯rari debut and replicate the feat that Fernando Alonso did.

“It would spur on this hype train.

“The drivers’ championship? If we are going bold, I’ll ꦿgo for Hamilton…

“This is tꦜhe move that he needed to rejuvenate himself.

“Last season there was an element that he chec🅺ked out. It was strange timing, it made the situation odd, that we knew before the season that he would move to Ferrari.

“He was getting ꦯphased out of meetings, as you’d expect.

"Whether George Russell got pre𒁏ferential treatment with set-ups? We don’t know.

“It was one o♉f his worst seasons in⛄ F1 statistically but when there was a sniff of a win, he took it!”

The F1 grid is expected to converge, in terms of competitiveness, in 2025 because it is the༒ final year of the current engine regulati💫ons.

It me𒀰ans every team w💞ill be looking to 2026 and beyond, so we should see closer racing this season.

That mi🌳ght give Verstappen his hardest job to def🀅end his title yet - or might give the Red Bull driver an opportunity to further prove his brilliance.