'You will be surprised' - Lando Norris shrugs off favourite F1 tag

Lando Norris has downplayed McLaren's F1 form ahead of the new campaign following pre-season testing from Bahrain.

McLaren enter the new season as the reigning constructors' champions as it looks to add a drivers' title to its achievements this year.

The Woking-based squad's pace at the test turned heads, particularly a rapid long-run from Norris on the second day of running.

However, Norris stated rival F1 teams are purposely playing themselves down before the opening round of the year in Australia this weekend.

“I know there's a lot of expectation and that's what everyone says,” Norris told media including RacingNews365. “My one race run I did just made everyone believe this quite heavily.

"It was a good race run, but it was also in the most perfect conditions.

“Oscar did a race run the next day that was a lot slower, not because he drove worse, but simply because the conditions on the final day were considerably slower.

"I'm quite surprised so many people are so short-sighted, especially people you wouldn't expect to be, making so many conclusions before we even started the season.

“Everyone just wants to play that game of looking like the underdog and playing it down."

Norris pinpoints Ferrari as 'surprise' team

The F1 title race is expected to be a tightly fought affair this year with the sport in the final year of the current regulation cycle.

Four teams won multiple races across the highly competitive 2024 season, a trend that is expected to continue this year.

While McLaren has been labelled the early-season favourite, Norris highlighted Ferrari as a team that could shock people with its pace in Melbourne.

“We just focus on ourselves,” Norris said. “It’s nice that people are thinking about us. It’s great publicity but it makes no difference.

“If I go out and do a bad job this weekend, who cares what people have said in the past?

“I don’t believe it - I feel like we’re in a similar playing field to the top other three teams. But there are many things other people didn’t see.

“Others looked extremely strong, including Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.

“I know how much fuel and stuff Ferrari had for a lot of the testing. You'll be surprised at how quick they are going to be this weekend.

"People can talk what they want. I think for us we've kept to ourselves. We kept focused. We want to be quick, we expect to be up there fighting but I definitely don't think by the margin that everyone is saying.”