McLaren has dominated this season, and with ten races remaining, looks to have already sewn up the constructors’ title. This has also led to their drivers challenging each other for the championship, with Oscar Piastri leading Lando Norris by just nine points.
While the two have kept it relatively clean on track, they have still raced each other hard. They have been mainly competing for the top step on the podium for the majority of the season. Piastri has revealed that this is the first time he has raced a teammate so hard to secure a title.
Oscar Piastri opens up on the Lando Norris championship fight
Oscar Piastri is no stranger to fighting teammates for championships. He fought off the challenge from Logan Sargeant to win the F3 championship in 2020, beating the American by just four points. However, Piastri acknowledges that the F1 title fight against Lando Norris is completely different.
Speaking to Autosport, Piastri explained: “This is the first time I’ve really raced a teammate so hard for a championship. I raced against Logan Sargeant for the championship in F3, but there’s much less involved. There’s no pit stops, there’s no strategy, it’s purely just go out and try and beat each other, and finish ahead of each other.
“In F1, you’ve got the added complications of strategy, you’ve got a bunch of different things that can influence results. That has been a different dynamic and has put a lot of importance on certain things, like being ahead before pit stops, taking risks and certain points, and when not to take risks.
“That’s been quite a different mentally. In the position that we are in, you can’t just be consistently scoring points; you need to be beating everyone else. We are ultimately fighting for first and second every week. If you are consistently finishing second, you can say ‘Yeah, it’s consistently finishing and scoring good points’. But if the other guys winning all the races, then he’s consistent as well.”
Lando Norris currently has the momentum, having won three out of the last four races. But Piastri has the lead. It is a slender lead, but the pressure will be on Norris to catch the advantage in the final ten races. All Piastri has to do is finish ahead of Norris, and the title will be his.
Can Lando Norris overtake Oscar Piastri to win the title?
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri in the last two seasons, where the pair have been teammates. However, this season, Piastri has upped his game and has taken the fight to Lando. Piastri has been more consistent during the season, but Norris has found his form in the European leg and slowly chipped away at the lead.
However, former F1 world champion Nico Rosberg believes Norris can win the title if he has the right mentality. Speaking on The F1 Show, Rosberg said: “The championship is going to be decided in Lando’s head. That’s my that’s my kind of impression unfortunately. It’s how solid can Lando become?”
Norris has to take heart from his recent results, where he won in Austria, Britain and Hungary. However, after pitting after Piastri, the Brit made mistakes while chasing his teammate down, costing him the chance of winning the race in Belgium. He needs to block out the noise and take it race by race. If he can, Norris will still be in the hunt, in a championship which could go down to the wire.
