McLaren F1 star Lando Norris deals humiliating Ferrari blow

Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc during press conference — Photo: © IMAGO

McLaren

Lando Norris deals humiliating Ferrari blow

Lando Norris is close to his first F1 drivers' title

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Friday 21 November 2025 12:58

It’s stat o’clock here at GPFans, which means it’s time to use rival F1 teams and drivers to emphasise just how poor Ferrari have performed in 2024 and 2025. And the star of today's assessment? Championship leader Lando Norris.

The continued fall from grace of the legendary F1 team has been well documented, from Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s complaints in the media to the current civil war raging on at Ferrari.

But sometimes you need cold hard numbers to really labour the point that they are suffering; or alternatively bolster the ego of one of their rivals.

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It will come as no surprise that reigning constructors’ champions McLaren have more podiums than Ferrari in the past two seasons, enjoying a lofty 52 appearances for Norris and Oscar Piastri since the start of 2024.

Meanwhile, Ferrari themselves have only earned themselves 29 podiums in the past two seasons, although they can be forgiven considering the team in papaya have dominated the past year-and-a-half of competition.

Where it does get interesting is when you look at Norris’ podiums alone since the start of the 2024 season, with the British driver coming exceptionally into his own with 30 podiums and counting, just one more than Ferrari, a humiliating reality.

Considering that one driver can collect more podiums than two drivers at a team within two years is nothing to be sniffed at, but again, McLaren’s dominance must be taken into account.

Ferrari have still managed to thankfully keep Piastri at bay, who has secured 22 podiums from the start of 2024 season until time of writing, ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. It does feel rather unfair to compare Ferrari so closely to McLaren, one team dominating isn’t necessarily a symptom of their failure - you know, apart from Ferrari's failure to dominate F1 themselves.

F1 number crunching: Ferrari vs McLaren vs Red Bull

Let’s tackle one of McLaren's more direct competitors over the past two seasons, Red Bull. The Milton Keynes-based outfit have endured an equally torrid time of late, losing key personnel while star driver Max Verstappen has slipped further out of title contention.

A second driver at Red Bull has also failed to stand on the podium since the Chinese GP in 2024, with Verstappen essentially a one-person team for the past two years.

Surely with just one driver in contention for podiums, Ferrari will have managed to best Red Bull in the past two seasons. The answer? Don’t be ridiculous, of course they haven’t!

In fact, Red Bull have scored 30 podiums since the start of 2024, one more than Ferrari despite the likes of Leclerc, Hamilton and Carlos Sainz all racing for their team. Bar four podiums achieved by Sergio Perez in early 2024, Verstappen has secured 26 of Red Bull’s podiums in the past two seasons, evidencing further just how impressive the four-time world champion is at the team.

When you peek into Ferrari's driver statistics themselves, there is a large gulf between Leclerc and Hamilton. Despite his inferior machinery, Leclerc has managed to claim 20 podium finishes in the past two seasons, seven of which have salvaged a miserable season for Ferrari in 2025.

Hamilton’s lack of podiums for Ferrari have been well publicised, but during his final season at Mercedes the seven-time world champion only claimed five, although then team-mate George Russell fared even worse with four.

However in 2025, Russell has emerged as a stronger competitor and claimed eight podium finishes, which have also included two race victories in Canada and Singapore.

The conclusion of all this number crunching? Norris has been in the form of his career these past two seasons, and Ferrari have a lot of catching up to do - all of which would have been evident without this exercise anyway.

However, what these numbers do go to show is that drivers continue to make the difference in F1, with the likes of Verstappen and Leclerc exceeding expectations regardless of their inferior cars.

Besides, Ferrari don’t care if Norris has more podiums than them. What matters is winning, and anything less than that heading into 2026 and beyond will be deemed unacceptable by fans and Ferrari bosses alike.

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Written by

Sheona Mountford - F1 Journalist

Sheona Mountford is a motorsport journalist specialising in F1. As a writer and contributor, she covers a wide range of motorsport series from F1 to F1 Academy, responsible for breaking news, live race coverage and in depth analysis of the sport and the culture around it.

View full biography

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari McLaren Lando Norris Charles Leclerc