Norris confident of fighting for F1 championship in 2025

McLaren's Lando Norris is confident he will be capable of challenging newly-crowned 2024 champion Max Verstappen more closely for the title next season.

Verstappen's fifth place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday put his points total beyond the reach of closest rival Norris with two races remaining.

Norris is 63 points behind Verstappen but the British driver says he and his team will be starting next season believing they can win the drivers' championship.

"Next year we will go into the season with a car we think we can win the championship with from the first race and I'm very excited for that," he said.

Norris added: "I feel like I can fight for a championship, I can say that confidently, I have what it takes, some things to work on for sure and I can fight against Max."

Verstappen's title win extended his Formula 1 dominance, with it being his fourth championship in a row.

The Dutchman started the year in typically strong fashion as he won four of the first five races but the season gradually became more competitive with six other drivers also winning races.

One of those was Norris, who claimed his maiden F1 win at the Miami Grand Prix in May.

Norris went on to notch up further wins at the Dutch and Singapore grands prix but he needed to outscore Verstappen by at least three points in Las Vegas to have a hope of extending the title battle.

Instead he finished sixth, one place behind Verstappen as Mercedes' George Russell won the race.

Norris said before this weekend's race that he "wasn't ready" for a title fight this season but is confident it will be different next year.

He added: "Max is the best driver in the world and one of the best drivers there has ever been in F1, so to put up a fight against him and go wheel-to-wheel is something I love.

"He deserves the championship but hopefully I can upset him more next year.”

Norris made his Formula 1 debut in 2019, meaning he had to wait five years to claim his first race win.

Before this year he had claimed eight second-place finishes and regularly showed his ability as a driver capable of challenging at the top of the field.

Prior to this season, McLaren had won just one race since 2012 - when Daniel Ricciardo won at Monza in 2021 - but this year they won five grands prix with Oscar Piastri also winning twice.

Norris believes he and the team have grown as the season has gone on.

"I feel like since Zandvoort [the Dutch Grand Prix in August] I've done close to a perfect job," he told Sky F1.

"There are things I need to improve on as always, but I feel like I've done a good job, especially the second half of the season.

"The first half we were suddenly like 'oh we are fighting them [Red Bull]'. I don't think I or us as a team were mentally ready for fighting against the big boys and execute perfectly.

"As much as we would like to believe we were ready, we weren't and we paid the price a little bit."

While the drivers' championship battle is over the constructors' title is still to be decided.

McLaren lead the way in the standings with 608 points with Ferrari second on 584 and Red Bull third with 555.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: "There are four teams in contention for victory all of the time. That's great for Formula 1, but it means we have to be performing at our absolute best if we are to win the Constructors' Championship.

"Not very long ago, the notion that we would be in contention for the title would have been incredible, unthinkable - but now it's realistic and we have to finish the job."