Key Norris ally outlines McLaren F1 title homework

Lando Norris' F1 race engineer Will Joseph has stated McLaren is leaving no stone unturned as it aims to iron out its weaknesses ahead of a potential title fight next year.

McLaren claimed its first constructors' championship in 26 years earlier this month with Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri combining to bring home the trophy.

However, Norris fell short of winning the drivers' title with Red Bull's Max Verstappen bagging his fourth championship.

Norris closed the gap over the course of the season but could not capitalise on his charge, leaving Verstappen to seal the title at the third-to-last round of the season.

McLaren ended the year in a strong position in Abu Dhabi with Norris taking a commanding win - but Joseph stated McLaren need an even greater step if it wishes to challenge once again in 2025.

“You're right in the fact that it's not a single race, it's not a single thing that happened that meant we didn't win that championship,” Joseph told the Sky F1 podcast.

“Yes, I think we could have done better in a lot of those races, but as you said, what we need to do is we need to hit the ground running in 2025.

“We talk a lot about raising the bar, and the reality is, if we go into 2025 in the same place we finish here, we won't win. We need to do more. We need to do better.

“So everything that has gone wrong, we need to go back and find a reason why we couldn't do it better. Do we need to change the way we work? Do we need to change the information that we're sharing?”

The 2025 F1 season is being pitched as one of the closest seasons for some time, as the technical regulations will remain unchanged ahead of a 2026 shake-up.

With the pecking order at the front of the field so close last year, there could be multiple teams in contention for the title win next year.

Joseph outlined the responsibility to improve is felt from every angle of the team.

“It’s a lot of work in the background that goes on to raise the bar, and the responsibility is on us,” he said.

“Lando has a shared responsibility, and he's the first person to say there are things that he could have done better.

“So we'll go through those together. We'll go through those as a group, as individuals, and we'll come together and hopefully come up with a plan.

“It’s big on Randy [Singh]'s agenda to make us better in a lot of the things we do. 

“That's one of his big responsibilities. And it's our responsibility to be part of that and play our role in crossing every I and dotting every T.”