Norris has his say after his first run in McLaren's 2025 car
F1 News
With just a few weeks until the Formula 1 2025 season gets underway at the Australian Grand Prix, teams have started to test the cars that will be on the grid for the upcoming campaign. One of those teams is McLaren, debuting their brand new MCL39 on Thursday with title hopeful Lando Norris behind the wheel. The Brit also gave his first thoughts on his new car that he will hope brings him a championship come the end of the year.
At the iconic Silvertone circuit, McLaren were the first team on the grid to show their new challenger for the 2025 season, with the MCL39 taking to the British circuit with Norris. A camo livery was wrapped on the new McLaren, saving the actual livery for the F1 75' event at the O2 Arena, where thousands of fans will be in attendance to see all the cars and their respective liveries for the 2025 campaign.
Norris says the "innovative" MCL39 felt "normal"
It was only a shakedown that McLaren and Norris completed, but it was the first glimpse of a 2025 F1 car, and one that is expected to be challenging for many race wins and titles this year. After the shakedown around Silverstone, Norris was asked for his first thoughts on the brand-new car given to him by McLaren: "It's early days. Honestly, not too many comments yet. I think, as you can see, the conditions are not ideal, so had some wet running.
The papaya-coloured team came into their own in 2024, winning the constructors' championship for the first time since 1998, and they will be looking to win it once again this season. "It felt normal, I’d say," continued Norris. "That’s been the first good step, because it has been quite innovative with some of the designs and some things that they’ve tried to attack with the car this year. That has caused trickiness in design, all of those types of things. The guys have done a very good job to try and explore more areas and push boundaries.
“So you’re always a little bit nervous that things are not going to be perfect when you try them, and how well they’re going to match the track and wind tunnel and all these things put together, but I think everything’s working as it should, and everything feels normal," concluded Norris.
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