Fernando Alonso is unconvinced by Lando Norris's suggestion that more than four teams can win races in 2025's Formula 1 season, suggesting that the championship lacks the unpredictability to allow that.
Four teams - Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes - all won races in 2024 as the competitive shape of the grid swung throughout the year, a sea change from 2023 where just one race was not won by Red Bull.
After last year's pre-season testing, the prelude to the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Alonso suggested that Red Bull's advantage was such that "19 drivers in the paddock now will think that [they] will not win the championship".
Red Bull did deliver on that advantage in the opening rounds, although McLaren's progress throughout the year brought Norris into play to put pressure on Max Verstappen.
"I think it's more open this year," Alonso began. "Last year it felt like Max had a big advantage in winter testing, and this year it seems that maybe McLaren has an advantage.
"But I didn't follow the test, I only read the news this morning. I think it's going to be more open and hopefully close until the end.
Asked by Autosport about Norris's assertion that more teams could win in F1 in 2025, Alonso witheringly suggested that the Briton was only willing to suggest this "now that he has the winning car".
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The two-time F1 champion explained his view that the reliability and the level of simulation in modern racing had removed some of the jeopardy and unpredictability from the races - and felt that only weather could help deliver Norris's prediction.
"When [Norris] was in the fifth or sixth team, he was saying that only one team will win all the races. This is a normal, confident speech," the veteran Spaniard dismissed. "It is good for him but I think it is going to be difficult. Reliability is so good these days; there are not many retirements, there are not many incidents. Strategies are quite defined.
"Even on Thursday before coming to the grand prix, you know exactly it is going to be one stop, two stops, which tyre you will use. Everything is so perfect now that it is difficult to change or to make a race unpredictable. It has to be crazy weather or something.
"Hopefully there are multiple winners and it is going to be a tight championship. Last year it was already a very good one and hopefully this year it is even better."
Additional reporting by Oleg Karpov
