Norris takes the piss out of these two F1 teams as his main title threats

The McLaren driver heads into the 2026 season as the reigning world champion after clinching the title in Abu Dhabi last December, narrowly beating Verstappen and his teammate to secure the first Formula 1 crown of his career.

The regulation reset has inevitably wiped out the significant advantage McLaren had built over the past two seasons, with the MCL40 still something of an unknown despite showing decent signs during pre-season testing.

When asked who could be his biggest rival for the season about to begin, the newly crowned world champion replied to GPblog among other medi with a hint of irony: "Probably Aston. Maybe Cadillac. Otherwise we just focus on ourselves."

Valtteri Bottas also joined in with some light-hearted predictions, using Aston Martin’s current struggles as the perfect opportunity to jokingly place Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll among the favourites for the title.

"If I have to guess something now, I'm going to say Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, and... George Russell. Because I think they were sandbagging, so they're going to beat Aston at the very end in Abu Dhabi," he said in Today's press conference.