Miami Grand Prix 2025 Preview: 'Taking Chances' Again Where Lando Norris First Tasted Victory

Lando Norris knows he will have to take risks if he is to dethrone Max Verstappen and become Formula One world champion, as he prepares to return to the scene of his first race win in Miami. (More Formula 1 News)

Norris, who finished second to Verstappen in the 2024 drivers' championship, currently occupies the same position, sitting 10 points behind McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.

He is just two clear of Verstappen after the first five grands prix of 2025, having gone four races without a victory since his curtain-raising triumph in Australia.

But this weekend, Norris returns to a track that holds fond memories for him, with the Miami Grand Prix being staged for the fourth time, at the Miami International Autodrome.

No driver has ever won the event from the front row of the grid, with Norris racing from fifth to earn his maiden triumph in the sport last year. 

He has a chance to win two editions of the same grand prix for the first time in his career this weekend, and after surging past Verstappen following a safety car at the 2024 race, he feels a bold approach will be needed again. 

"I'm excited. Coming back to the circuit where I won my first race, obviously, there's a lot of great memories, a lot of great feelings," Norris told Stats Perform courtesy of Allwyn.

"I would love to say I can repeat it again. That's our plan. Every race, we're coming in with optimism and with the expectation that we can fight for a victory.

"I think taking chances, especially when there's a lot of competition, is very important. I think a perfect example for me is probably last year here in Miami. 

"It was my first one, but it came by taking a chance – a calculated chance through strategy.

"As always, you know the pros and cons of doing some of these things and sometimes you've got to take that chance to really find out what's going to work and what's not. 

"Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn't. But that's life. Here in Miami, it worked out."

Norris is into his seventh season as a starting driver in F1, having joined the McLaren Driver Development Programme as an 18-year-old in 2017. 

He believes more F1 enthusiasts – regardless of their age – should seek a career in the sport, pointing out the vast scale of the operation behind McLaren's championship push.

"I think people overlook the rest of it – the amount of people that I have behind me. To build McLaren, to build the team, it's over a thousand people," Norris said.

"It takes all of them and it takes years and years of work to create a good racing car, to create a championship-winning team. 

"There's such a variety of areas to work in, starting with the ones that I'm most close to, like my race engineer, my performance engineer. They almost feel like they're in the car half the time because they're talking to me, they're setting up the car.

"Then you have the strategy team. The guys who influence when I make pit stops, when to take chances.

"Then you have mechanics, making it possible for me to go and drive. Then the hundreds back in the factory, designing the car, making the car, producing it.

"There's plenty of space, whether that's trying to take my position, to sit alongside me and be a race engineer, a mechanic, an engineer, design, aerodynamicist, marketing... We want the best. We want to be the best team."