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Lando Norris does not shy away from the fact that his sights are firmly set on world championship success in Formula 1 this year, after falling short in 2024.
It is a step that requires McLaren to make progress with its car to help sustain race-winning form for the duration of the campaign – and not just for a segment of it.
But it also calls on aspects of Norris's own performances becoming more robust, too, which includes him eradicating the kind of mistakes that proved so costly last year, especially on opening laps.
Yet towering above everything else as the ultimate challenge that will need to be overcome is how to deal with the problem that is Max Verstappen – a driver that Norris himself has labelled “one of the hardest attacking/defence guys you can ever go up against".
The pair locked horns last year several times, and it did not always end in a pretty fashion.
In Austria they collided while battling for the lead, in Austin there was controversy over an intense wheel-to-wheel fight that earned Norris a penalty for an off-track overtake, while in Mexico it was Verstappen who got sanctioned for pushing his rival wide as he tried to retake a position.
Norris learned quickly that fighting Verstappen was a much tougher ask than fighting many other drivers – and it is one that he admits that at times he did not handle in the best way possible.
“There were some things that I didn’t do a good enough job, I wasn’t simply at the level that I need to be to race against Max,” said Norris, speaking at the sidelines of the filming day for the new MCL39 at Silverstone.
“But when we’re talking about probably going up against one of the hardest attacking/defence guys you can ever go up against - [who] like we saw in Mexico, very willingly sacrificed himself for the overall outcome… when that’s a mentality of a driver, whether it’s Max or anyone, that’s a very difficult one to ever come out on top of when you’re 40 or 50 points behind in the championship. It’s never going to be a win for me.”
Getting elbows out
There are many ways that a driver in Norris’s position can counter that kind of aggression. One of which is fighting fire with fire.
But while being a bit tougher is something Norris accepts he needs to do, it is not a case of simply throwing caution to the wind in wheel-to-wheel battles and not giving a damn about the outcome.
“I need to get my elbows out and I need to show him I’m not going to willingly give him any positions,” admitted Norris. “But I also have to be a smart driver. You have to be a smart driver to go up against Max.
“At the same time, I don’t need to go out and prove something. I don’t need to take any unnecessary risks. I need to 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. But the easy way is just going out and being a bit quicker than him and staying ahead. That’s the obvious plan.
“I know I’ve just got to be smart, that’s the answer to it all. And you have to position your car well and also think of the long game sometimes.”
No comfort blanket
The key, for Norris, is not giving his rival another comfort blanket of a massive points gap - which made it so there was nothing to lose if a crash happens.
Norris thinks Verstappen has to be put in a scenario where incidents could prove costly; because that will act as the biggest deterrent to the Dutchman taking big risks.
“So what’s the main thing that’s going to change this year? I just need more points from the beginning – and hopefully it’s the other way around,” said Norris.
“Being in his position, you can always see it as the vulnerable position, and me being the chaser and the guy trying to attack can also be seen as a positive.
“But with how he drives and the risks he takes, and the aggressiveness he has, there was almost no way I could come back from the deficit I had.
“There would have been too many scenarios that replicated Mexico or replicated Red Bull Ring, where we were both out in a way.”
Starting stronger
Norris is not alone in thinking that key to setting a different tone to the championship is starting stronger.
It is not lost on team boss Andrea Stella that the story of the 2024 season changed in Miami.
Over the first five races, Norris had lost 52 points to Verstappen. He dropped just a further 11 over the remainder of the campaign – so things were pretty much neck-and-neck for much of the year.
So, with the way that Stella believes Norris has developed – “quite impressively” at times – giving better machinery from the off could be a game-changer.
“He learned very fast and definitely has now all the qualities and skills, mindset, to become a world champion,” explained Stella.
“But similar considerations I can make for Oscar [Piastri]. So I think as a team we're in a lucky position to have two drivers that are in condition to succeed.
“And, if anything, the pressure is on the team. So the first takeaway is to give the drivers a car that can allow them to fight for podiums and wins right from the start.”
Norris is not pretending that there isn’t room for him to do a better job if he finds himself in situations that are a repeat of what happened last year – but it is that change of circumstance with a different picture of the title battle that could really transform everything.
“The main thing is just starting off on the right foot,” he said. “It changes the mentality of every driver. It’s a different mentality of Max if he’s 50 points behind versus 50 points ahead.
“That’s the key difference. The rest is keep doing what I’m doing. But I know I wasn’t at the level that I needed to be at when I first went into those battles with Max. That was clear.
“I take that on the chin. It hurts. It’s always going to hurt when you look silly at times and you don’t come out on top. But that’s the way it is in life sometimes.
“As long as I learn from [the mistakes] and don’t make them multiple times, that’s the way it is. I need to do a better job.”
