With eight pole positions, four wins and 13 podiums, Norris enjoyed his best F1 season to date as he proved he could fight for the title. But many will argue 2024 was a missed opportunity for the Brit.
After his maiden win at the Miami Grand Prix, Norris’ MCL38 was arguably the fastest package on track after Red Bull regressed in performance. Max Verstappen went on a 10-race winless run after Barcelona having won seven of the opening 10 Grand Prix.
McLaren prioritised Norris over teammate Oscar Piastri in the bid to win the driver’s title. While they did win the constructors’ championship over Ferrari and Red Bull, the Woking-based outfit failed to capitalise on the performance of their car.
Of Norris’ eight pole positions, only three were converted to victory as he botched several starts and handed the lead to his rivals. Some questionable strategy calls from the pit wall did not help either with Marc Surer saying McLaren made a ‘big mistake’ not prioritising Norris sooner.
Norris also made several costly errors that hampered his title chances, particularly in Sao Paulo where he slipped off track twice after the restart and finished sixth while Verstappen won the trace from P17. The Dutchman wrapped up the championship at the next race in Las Vegas.
Norris and Verstappen battled hard all season with the pair having several conflicts on track. The rivals collided in Austria which handed George Russell the win while controversial incidents in Austin and Mexico City sparked debate surrounding track limit violations and penalties for defensive driving.
Zak Brown says McLaren will race Verstappen differently in 2025 having learned from fighting with the Red Bull driver last season. Norris will be keen to prevent the 27-year-old from winning a fifth consecutive championship.
Speaking with Autosport via their TikTok channel, Norris was awarded the British Competition Driver of the Year award at the Autosport awards but was unable to attend the event.
In his acceptable video, the Brit vowed to be ‘better’ and ‘stronger’ and that his 2024 mistakes would not be repeated.
“I’m very proud and honoured, because it’s a fan vote to be picking up for the third time in my career, the Autosport British Competition Driver of the Year award”, he said.
“I think I won it in 2020, last year and this year so I’ve gone back to back. A lot of this is all down to the fans, my beautiful supporters who are there supporting me and cheering me on every weekend.
“I know last year was a great year, I know at the same time you’re a little bit disappointed. So I’m making sure this year is going to be better, stronger and I don’t make the same mistakes that I did last time out”.
McLaren and Norris will have their sights set on Verstappen this season as they look to end his run of dominance. Martin Brundle has Norris as the favourite to win the title and he will be hoping to make that a reality.
But Verstappen may not be the driver he should worry about. Ferrari and Mercedes will no doubt present a tough challenge in 2025, as well as his McLaren teammate Piastri.
The Aussie had to take a back step to help his teammate in 2024, with Brown saying McLaren keep score when their drivers help each other. With the scores now set to zero, the duo will be free to battle.
Piastri wants to avoid team orders this season as he looks to establish himself as the number one driver at McLaren this year.
Complications with team orders could see Piastri beat Norris if McLaren, like in 2024, cannot intervene sooner in the intra-team battle that is certainly going to be an interesting watch.
