McLaren’s Lando Norris dismisses Max Verstappen’s Formula One title dig as ‘nonsense’ talk
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(From left) McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri alongside Red Bull's Max Verstappen at the Lusail International Circuit racetrack on Nov 29, 2025, ahead of the Formula One Qatar Grand Prix.
PHOTO: EPA
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DOHA – Formula One leader Lando Norris said title rival Max Verstappen talked nonsense, and sometimes did not have a clue, after the Red Bull driver said he would have won the 2025 championship easily in a McLaren.
The Dutch four-time world champion is 25 points behind Norris with two races remaining.
McLaren, who clinched their second successive constructors’ title in October, have both drivers Norris and Oscar Piastri, who is 22 points adrift, battling for the crown while Verstappen gets No. 1 treatment at Red Bull.
“Max is very welcome to say everything he wants, to be honest. He’s kind of earned the right. You know, he’s won four world championships,” Norris told reporters after finishing third in the Nov 29 Qatar sprint race won by Piastri
“He’s achieved an incredible amount – more than anyone generally dreams of achieving.
“Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things but there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about.
“It’s also Red Bull’s way of going about things, this kind of aggressive nature and, yeah, just talking nonsense a lot of the time.”
Norris could win the drivers’ championship at the Qatar Grand Prix but the Nov 30 race ended after press time. He started second behind pole-sitter Piastri, with Verstappen third on the grid.
Meanwhile, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur said on Nov 28 he had maybe underestimated the psychological effect on the team of an early halt to the development of their 2025 car.
Ferrari are the only top four team yet to win this season and both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, have openly expressed their frustration.
Hamilton has not stood on the podium since he joined from Mercedes in January and has called the season the worst of his career.
On Nov 28, the Briton qualified 18th for the sprint race, after lining up last in Las Vegas the previous weekend. He finished just one spot higher in the sprint race with teammate Charles Leclerc 13th.
Hamilton started 17th for the grand prix, ahead of only Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, while Leclerc was 10th.
“Quite early in the season, McLaren was so dominating in the first four or five events that we realised it would be very difficult for 2025,” Vasseur told reporters before sprint qualifying.
“It meant that we decided very early in the season, I think it was the end of April, to switch (the development focus) to ’26. It was a tough call.
“Perhaps I also underestimated a little bit the call on the psychological side, because when you still have 20 races to go, or 18 races to go, and you know that you won’t bring any aero development.
“It’s quite tough to manage psychologically.”
Ferrari still brought some mechanical upgrades and tried to tighten up operationally, but have been concentrating their efforts on the car for next year, the start of a new engine and rules era.
“I’m still confident with the call that we made,” said Vasseur, whose team last won a championship in 2008 and finished second in 2024.
Vasseur said he perfectly understood his drivers’ frustration and did not blame them.
“We have exactly the same frustration in the garage or on the pit wall. The most important is to react after the frustration,” added the Frenchman. REUTERS
