Guenther Steiner highlights ‘little mistakes’ from Lando Norris that will make ‘the difference’ in 2025 F1 title fight

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The 2025 F1 championship fight is getting more intense after every race weekend, but Guenther Steiner believes the title is already heading home with one of the McLaren drivers.

Oscar Piastri added another win to his 2025 tally at the Belgian Grand Prix, extending the championship lead over his teammate Lando Norris to 16 points.

The title surely looks like it will be in the hands of one of the McLaren drivers come the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi, but the identity of which Papaya driver is yet to be decided.

An insider at the Woking-based outfit noted the current sentiment within the McLaren team of how they want the F1 title to be decided this season, stating that they hope it is settled ‘on merit’.

One nightmare scenario could see the title going to Piastri or Norris following ‘reliability issues’ that have been plaguing Mercedes. McLaren are currently the only customer of the German constructor to not be hindered by an unreliable power unit this season.

Guenther Steiner thinks Oscar Piastri will win the 2025 F1 title due to ‘small glitches’ from Lando Norris

Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner highlighted what Norris does to himself that is causing him unwarranted issues throughout the 2025 season.

We see it over and over again with Lando that he makes his little mistakes,” Steiner started. “And therefore, I always say Oscar will win the championship because that is what makes the difference.

“As I say, he’s as fast as Oscar if everything goes right, but he just has these small glitches. They come from nowhere, and you never know when they’re coming.”

One of the biggest mistakes from Norris this season would be his crash into the back of Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix. The DNF saw the Brit add no points to his championship tally, whilst Piastri still managed to see the chequered flag in fourth and gain an advantage over his teammate.

Oscar Piastri was ‘braver’ than Lando Norris in Belgian GP overtake

Steiner doesn’t see Norris’ concession of the lead on the opening lap as one of the mistakes he previously alluded to, but he did note that Piastri was just a lot ‘braver’ than Norris in that instance, saying, “It’s not a mistake, but I don’t know how much you can avoid it.

“It’s very difficult to avoid, but the guy behind needs to be on it, otherwise, you cannot do it. Oscar, you could see that he took a bigger risk, he was just braver. He was flat. He was braver going through there, and then had the slipstream.”

Nico Rosberg thinks Max Verstappen would have nailed the rolling start from Sunday’s Grand Prix, adding that the way Norris led the pack away was not ‘optimally executed’.

After taking the lead from his teammate at turn one and leading for the rest of the race, Piastri’s ‘superb’ tyre management was hailed. The Aussie had a job on his hands to keep the medium tyre from deteriorating at a faster rate than Norris’ hard tyre that was bolted on at the pitstop.