Lewis Hamilton handed ‘backfire’ warning as Lando Norris has F1 title advantage

A revitalised Lewis Hamilton will be a force to be reckoned with this year – but fellow Brit Lando Norris still has the edge in the title race.

That’s the view of former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve who believes the Brits are the ones to beat in 2025 after four years of Max Verstappendominance. McLaren star Norris, 25, wants to go one better than his runner-up finish from last season while 40-year-old Hamilton is gunning for glory with new team Ferrari.

He seems to be so pumped,” 1997 title winner Villeneuve told Mirror Sport , via YaySweepstakes.com. “We should see the good Lewis, the one that knows how to win – and he definitely knows how to win. That’s the lethal Lewis, like the one we saw in Silverstone last year.

Hamilton has had plenty of track time over the winter to get to grips with Ferrari machinery before the action begins in Melbourne next Sunday. He looked comfortable across three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain but it was hard to read what the balance of power will be at the start of the new campaign.

And Villeneuve believes Hamilton’s situation has been made even less clear by the level of fanfare around his arrival at Ferrari. The Canadian said: “With Lewis, it’s really hard to say with the testing because there’s been so much hype that it’s hard to read what’s actually been going on. The hype is huge and when the hype is huge it can always backfire