Lando Norris may have ended 2025 as world champion, but not everyone in the paddock views the McLaren driver as the best. Former Ferrari performance coach Jock Clear believes that Max Verstappen remains the benchmark, and Norris is not in the same league as the Red Bull driver or Charles Leclerc.
Speaking to CasinoHawks, Clear assessed the drivers on the basis of the 2025 season, where Norris, Verstappen, and Leclerc each carried their teams. Norris sealed McLaren’s first Drivers’ crown since 2008 after a season-long fight involving Verstappen. But Clear pointed out that Verstappen’s second-half surge.
After trailing by more than 100 points during the summer, Verstappen went on an eight-race podium streak and won six times, dragging himself back into the title picture. While he eventually missed out on a fifth straight crown by only two points, for Clear, that late-season run shows why Verstappen remains the standard.
“You can’t help but come to the conclusion that Max is truly special. What he did at the end of 2025 was simply incredible. He’s the level everyone else needs to aspire to right now. I don’t think I’m belittling Lando Norris by saying this,” Clear said (via FormulaPassion.IT).
“I think Lando probably knows he still has a lot to give and that next year he’ll be a stronger driver, confident in having the number one on his car. But he still has to grow before reaching the same level as Max,” he added
Clear’s comparison did not stop with Max Verstappen. The former Ferrari coach also singled out Charles Leclerc as the driver he believes is most capable of matching the Red Bull star over a full season.
“Charles can become world champion. If we look at him this year, and no offense to the guys at McLaren, I think Leclerc is the only driver capable of competing with Verstappen right now. It might seem unfair to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who are fighting at that level. But if I had two cars and one was Max’s and they asked me who I’d want in the other to try and beat him, I’d choose Charles Leclerc.”
Leclerc’s 2025 campaign came in machinery that was rarely a race-winning threat, yet he still single-handedly carried Ferrari. He scored all seven of the team’s podiums, qualified on the front row four times, and outperformed Lewis Hamilton across races and qualifying. Clear, who worked closely with Leclerc during his Ferrari years, views that ability to extract results beyond the car’s natural level as a trait he shares with Verstappen.
In contrast, Lando Norris had the strongest package on the grid for most of the season. McLaren wrapped up the Constructors’ title early and placed both drivers in the championship fight. While he ultimately prevailed, Clear’s view is that the combination of car advantage and intra-team point splitting shaped the title narrative in a way that does not diminish Verstappen’s standing.
Marc Surer ranks Max Verstappen above Lando Norris despite the 2025 championship
Jock Clear’s assessment aligns with the view of former F1 driver Marc Surer, who also placed Max Verstappen above Lando Norris despite the Briton’s championship success. Speaking earlier this week, Surer argued that the McLaren MCL39 was the strongest all-round car in 2025 and that Norris and Oscar Piastri effectively limited each other’s points haul.
“They took points away from each other. Otherwise, it would have been almost too easy to become world champion in the McLaren,” Surer said to Sport.de. “Basically, I have to say the two of them are good. But they don’t have the level that a Vettel once had, that a Hamilton had, and that Max Verstappen has now.”
The Swiss driver, who competed in F1 between 1979 and 1986 alongside Ayrton Senna, went even further in his praise of the Red Bull star.
“He’s the best I’ve ever seen,” Surer added.
Still, some observers believe Lando Norris’ story is far from complete. As the sport heads into the 2026 regulation reset, Ferrari is expected to be stronger after committing early development resources to the SF26, while Red Bull will debut its first in-house power unit in partnership with Ford. That transition could bring uncertainty.
For Norris, the new era offers a chance to build on a title-winning foundation and close the gap to the driver many in the paddock still regard as the benchmark. Whether he can convert a championship season into sustained dominance remains one of the central questions heading into 2026.
