As rain threatens to fall over Silverstone, 'Norris already surrenders to Verstappen'

15:30, 06 Jul

byNorberto Mujica

The 2025 F1 British Grand Prix promises much excitement, however, McLaren driver Lando Norris is not as confident he can beat rival Max Verstappen.

The rain looms over Silverstone, giving a dramatic (and classic) British twist, to the 12th round of the F1 championship. Norris, however, who is to start P3 behind polesitter Verstappen and teammate Oscar Piastri, is not confident of his chances to beat the Dutchman.

At Red Bull Racing they chose to drop downforce to gain the edge on the straights, something the British driver is very much aware that it will make it difficult to get past the reigning world champion.

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Speaking post-qualifying to media including GPblog, Norris was asked just how hard it would be to get past Verstappen.

"It's hard, honestly, to know until you get behind and you have the dirty air and DRS and things like that."

"To be honest, at the minute, our DRS speed probably just about matches Max's speed."

"So, I think it'll be tough because we’ll probably catch him in the high speed, but we just won't really close much when we open the DRS."

"I think it can be tough, but there's also probably more opportunities than a normal race. Like they [Piastri and Verstappen] both said, between everyone, we're fast and slow in different places," Norris concluded.