Horner happy to hand over 'favourite' tag to Norris in 2025

After a nail-biting finish to the 2024 season, Max Verstappen could win his fourth world title in Formula 1, but the constructors' title went to McLaren thanks to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Ahead of the 2025 campaign, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner is happy to call Lando Norris the favourite instead of Max Verstappen.

Since he was first crowned after the 2021 season, Max Verstappen was usually the main favourite heading into a new season. Now, that does not seem to be the case given how the '24 season ended, with Verstappen having to do his absolute best to keep his lead in the standings. Horner is happy to give that tag to Norris instead.

"Sometimes it's good not to be the favourite. It puts the pressure on others. I'd be very happy to see Lando go into the first race as the favourite," the Briton told GPblog among others in London.

"But it's meaningless until we get to that first race," the Red Bull team principal continued. "Even then, Melbourne's a pretty unique circuit. I think you need to see that first batch of flyaways to get a real true read of form and degradation. We've got new surfaces in China."

Therefore, Horner prefers not to draw conclusions just yet about who would even be the favourite. "There's a lot of moving parts and it's such a long season. So let's see how it plays out," he concluded ahead of the F1 75 Live event.

Want more Formula 1? Then follow GPblog on our various social media channels!

X | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube