Gerhard Berger sees why Oscar Piastri is ‘still making mistakes’ that’ll hand Lando Norris the title

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Gerhard Berger believes Oscar Piastri should not be “underestimated” in the 2025 F1 title race, yet he expects to see Lando Norris win the drivers’ championship this year.

The McLaren duo are separated by 24 points atop the standings with 83 points still available across the final three rounds in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Norris regained the lead of the F1 drivers’ championship from Piastri in Mexico City and then moved clear in Sao Paulo.

Piastri had led the standings since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix back in round five this April. But Norris has outscored his teammate during every round since he fell to his largest deficit all season of 34 points following the Dutch Grand Prix in round 15/24 at the close of August.

Monza marked the start of the turnaround in the standings after McLaren told Piastri to give P2 in the Italian Grand Prix back to Norris. Then, during his run of woe, Piastri crashed in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, crashed into Norris in the USA Sprint and crashed in the Brazil Sprint.

Gerhard Berger blames Oscar Piastri’s ‘slump’ on the McLaren driver’s ‘lack of experience’

There have been some suggestions that McLaren blaming Piastri for the COTA Sprint crash with Norris, plus how the team dealt with them banging wheels in the Singapore Grand Prix, hurt the former’s confidence. But Berger can see a simpler cause for Piastri’s recent “slump”.

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Berger, who drove for McLaren in 1990 and 1991, believes Piastri lost his way in the 2025 F1 title fight simply due to his “lack of experience”. Now, provided that Norris does not make a costly mistake, he should beat the Australian and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to win the title.

“I’m betting on Norris,” Berger told sport.de. “If he doesn’t make any major mistakes and luck is on his side, he’ll do it. Piastri shouldn’t be underestimated. He’s had a slump [and] he’s still making mistakes due to a lack of experience, but maybe that slump is over now.

“And Max Verstappen never fluctuates, but the points gap is too big. He only has an outside chance of pulling off a surprise victory, for example, if both McLarens retire.”

Oscar Piastri has learnt ‘some tough lessons’ during his run of disappointing results

Norris can mathematically eliminate Verstappen from the 2025 F1 title fight this weekend in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The Briton leads the Dutchman in third place in the standings with a margin of 49 points, and there will be 58 to play for in the rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Piastri also trails his papaya pal by 24 points atop the drivers’ standings after Norris won the Sprint and Grand Prix in Brazil from pole position last time out. Sao Paulo further saw Piastri fail to get on a Grand Prix podium for the fifth straight round since he finished P3 at Monza.

McLaren have also seen Piastri finish each of the past three Grands Prix in the United States, Mexico City and Sao Paulo in P5, on the back of him finishing P4 in the Singapore Grand Prix. And Piastri now admits that his recent run of results has offered him “some tough lessons”.

“I think, for me, it’s more been that the last few races have been difficult for myself,” Piastri said ahead of the Las Vegas GP, via Auto Action. “I think there have been different reasons for all of that.

“But I think in terms of the way I’ve gone about racing and the way the team has… for me, there’s been some tough lessons to learn, some tough moments to have to accept, and nothing more than that.”