Damon Hill made an Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris pre-season prediction that could soon backfire this season

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After McLaren’s resurgence to the front of the grid during the 2024 F1 season, they were tipped as one of the favourites for the constructors’ title again.

Lando Norris took the chequered flag at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last December to mark McLaren’s ninth constructors’ championship feat.

The British driver was the team’s leading points-scorer, going toe-to-toe with Max Verstappen in an attempt to dethrone the Dutchman from one of the most dominant periods in Formula 1’s history.

Norris congratulated Verstappen following his fourth consecutive championship, and many predicted that we would see the two off-track friends butt heads again in 2025 for another title fight.

However, due to Red Bull’s decline and McLaren’s emerging dominance, the fight for the title has instead been contested between Norris and his papaya teammate, Oscar Piastri.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

Damon Hill kept ‘discounting’ Oscar Piastri in his pre-season predictions

In Damon Hill’s pre-season predictions, via the Formula For Success podcast, he was among the majority who thought Norris would be looking to get his own back on Verstappen, whilst using Piastri as his partner in crime in an attempt to secure his first world championship.

Speaking to David Coulthard before the beginning of the season in Australia, Hill talked about the ‘edge’ that Norris held over Piastri throughout the previous campaign, stating, “You’ve got Lando and Oscar.

“I keep doing this, I keep discounting Oscar. Because I just think that Lando had the edge on him last year, I just think in the races. But they were very, very close.

“There’s nothing between them, they’re both equally good, you only need to miss out by hundredths, don’t we? The timings now, and the margins, are so small.”

The margins are indeed very small. Now in the midst of the summer break, Piastri holds a slender nine-point advantage over his McLaren teammate. Hill has since changed his tune on Piastri, hailing him for an ‘extraordinary’ move on Norris to secure his sixth win of the season.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

Mark Webber knew Oscar Piastri would be a title contender in pre-season

As the manager of the 24-year-old championship leader, Mark Webber was able to see firsthand the strides that Piastri was able to make over the winter break to get himself into shape so he could challenge for a title in the right machinery.

Webber noted the work Piastri was doing behind the scenes with McLaren, such as working with engineers, recognising his own weaknesses and being a present figure with the Woking factory.

Webber also confided to Nico Rosberg about Piastri’s post-race mentality after his lack of a podium at the Canadian Grand Prix in June, with Rosberg relaying that the Australian ‘solid’ demeanour is allowing him to stay fully focused on the bigger picture.

It’s impossible to call, at the moment, which way the title will swing come the chequered flag at the Yas Marina Circuit, but there’s no denying that Piastri is of world championship calibre. If not this season, it’s only a matter of time before he’s etched into the F1 history books.