Lando Norris vs. Max Verstappen Prediction on March 16, 2025

Match info

For the first race of the 2025 season at Albert Park Circuit, the FIA Louis Vuitton Formula 1 World Championship caravan has arrived in Melbourne, Victoria. All 20 drivers from 10 teams will line up together on the grid for the first time this year at the Australian Grand Prix 2025 on Sunday, March 16. The race begins at 8 a.m. local time.

Meeting statistics

This weekend, Lewis Hamilton will compete in his maiden race for Ferrari, the most successful team in Formula One, which will draw as much attention as the battle between the top World Drivers’ Championship contenders, among which there’s no place for Hamilton, at least not in the top four favorites according to the AUD bookies’ odds. Other drivers to keep an eye on include the six rookies who, aside from Aston Martin and McLaren, are a part of eight new driver partnerships.

What went on the previous year? A remarkable turnaround occurred at the Australian Grand Prix 2024 when Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. won two weeks after suffering from appendicitis. He’s currently not even in Melbourne’s top 10 favorites. Early in the race, Max Verstappen abruptly retired due to a brake fire, while George Russell wrecked on the last lap, bringing the race to a virtual safety car finish.

At the 2025 F1 Pre-Season Testing – Bahrain, McLaren looked formidable. Almost everyone expected the Woking team to at least start the season with the strongest package, although there were some variances in expectations surrounding the pecking order ahead of the Australian Grand Prix 2025. However, as we’ve heard countless times, nothing is final until qualifying in Melbourne, and preseason testing is just that—preseason testing. The question of whether or not McLaren and Lando Norris are indeed the team and the driver to beat in Formula 1 presently won’t be answered until this Sunday.

Ignoring Red Bull and Max Verstappen as potential winners in Melbourne would be a mistake. Testing at the Bahrain International Circuit isn’t always the most accurate predictor, even though the Dutchman himself maintains the team has a lot of work to do and thinks McLaren presently has the lead over the rest of the field.

This year’s unrepresentative conditions, combined with the track’s rough surface, can easily skew the actual competition picture. In the same vein, Albert Park’s street circuit—one of the fastest in the calendar—features make it extremely challenging to forecast performance in advance, and the track frequently generates a different hierarchy than the rest of the season.

The top three picks in the 2025 World Drivers’ Championship race are the same as the top three picks in the Australian Grand Prix pre-qualifying betting, with McLaren’s Norris leading Red Bull’s Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Verstappen and Leclerc have each won at Albert Park Circuit in the last three years, but Norris has never triumphed here. Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes has the shortest pre-qualifying odds out of the six full-time rookies in Formula One.

Match analytics

Naturally, Norris is the early favorite to win the Australian Grand Prix 2025 since the Britt is expected to break Verstappen’s dynastic run as the F1 World Drivers’ Champion.

Tip: Australian Grand Prix Race – Winner – Norris, Lando, with odds of 2.60 on Supacasi.

Results of the forecast

Successful forecast. Winner - Lando Norris