F1 News
Rosberg believes Norris will win 2025 world title: 'Got to be favourite!'
2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg has picked Lando Norris as his 2025 title winner. The German believes that Norris has demonstrated why he is world championship material, but admits that there are still a few things for the Brit to iron out if he is to beat four-time consecutive winner Max Verstappen.
"Lando. I mean, he's the favourite for next year now to win the championship," Nico Rosberg began on the Sky Sports F1 podcast. "There's no reason why he shouldn't be the favourite, right? Because at the end of this year, McLaren was the strongest car. He has been marginally stronger than Piastri within the team. So he should be the favourite," Rosberg believes. Norris is coming off of a positive year with McLaren, where, in glimmers, he has shown that he could be one of the best driver on the grid.
The former Mercedes driver acknowledges the fact that Norris must work on a few aspects if he wants to put in a concrete world title challenge. "What we've still seen are some issues for him. He has some inner demons in his mind, which results in one or other mistakes. The most notable was in Singapore, where he was leading the race by 20 seconds, and he almost crashed out, which was a little bit strange. So he has to work on that a little bit still to reduce one or other mistakes."
'Verstappen will not win the world championship on that form!'
Yeah, I mean, Verstappen doesn't have the fastest car. He hasn't. I mean, he won two races since May, that's nuts! He had two races since May, of which one was just Verstappen magic in the rain, so only one race really in the dry that he won since May. You're not going to win the world championship in that form next year against Lando Norris, so I would say Lando is the favourite." Rosberg concluded.
After all, Norris has won four races this season, excelling out the front on occasion. In Abu Dhabi, he controlled the race from out front when the pressure was on. With any mistake, he would've lost McLaren their first constructors title since 1998. With an off-season of development building on his current skills, Norris could well be the favourite for the title in 2025.
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