Lando Norris told to make one ‘critical’ change to stop Oscar Piastri from winning the 2025 F1 title

Follow us on Google Discover

Only nine points separate McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris atop the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship standings with just 10 rounds of the season remaining.

It has increasingly become a two-man race between Piastri and Norris to dethrone four-time reigning champion Max Verstappen in the 2025 F1 season. The Red Bull driver goes home to Zandvoort after the summer break for the Dutch Grand Prix with a 97-point deficit to Piastri.

Norris had the honour of removing Verstappen from the top of the F1 drivers’ championship after 1,029 days with his win from pole position in the season-opening Australian GP. Yet the Briton only led for 35 days, and Piastri has led the standings since round five in Saudi Arabia.

Jolyon Palmer feels Piastri should be 61 points clear of Norris if he had “a bit of luck”. Piastri missed out on 16 points after his spin in Australia, and was on the wrong side of a two-point swing in the Miami Sprint, plus swings of six points at Imola, 14 in Britain and 14 in Hungary.

Derek Daly backs Oscar Piastri to win the 2025 F1 title due to Lando Norris’ mistakes

Norris utilised a safety car period to beat Piastri and win the Sprint in Miami, and he overtook his teammate for P2 in the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola. The 25-year-old even won owing to Piastri’s 10-second penalty in the British Grand Prix, due to a safety car restart infringement.

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

But former Tyrrell and Williams driver Derek Daly claims Norris makes too many mistakes at “critical” moments to believe he, rather than Piastri, will gift McLaren their first drivers’ title since 2008. Norris has made frequent blunders this season, while Piastri is largely ice-cool.

Daly told RacingNews365: “Right now, if I were to look at both drivers and pick one, I would pick the mistake-free weekends of Piastri over Norris.

“I just think Norris still makes too many mistakes at critical times. So, until he proves that he will no longer do that, I have to side with Piastri.”

Lando Norris is paying the price for his mistakes in the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship

Norris has been called out for making mistakes unbefitting of an F1 champion already in the 2025 season, having wasted a 23-point advantage over Piastri following the Australian GP. It took Piastri just four Grands Prix and one F1 Sprint to go from 23 points behind to 10 ahead.

McLaren have regularly seen Norris respond to Piastri growing his advantage, but the Briton has also then dropped the ball. Norris called himself “clueless” after qualifying P6 in Bahrain while Piastri scored pole, which the 24-year-old converted while the Briton recovered to P3.

READ MORE: Every error that cost Lando Norris points in his failed 2024 F1 title challenge

Norris also called himself an “idiot” after crashing during qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP when he tried to match Piastri’s speed through Turn 4. The crash meant he started the race from P10 while the Australian started from P2, and they then finished the race in P4 and P1.

The nine points that now separate the McLaren pair in the Australian’s favour would also be reversed if not for Norris crashing into the rear of Piastri’s car in Canada. Norris misjudged a chance to overtake Piastri for P4 along the pit straight, which ensured he left empty-handed.

McLaren are yet to see Piastri cause a crash with Norris, but he has twice come close. Piastri nearly hit Norris in the Austrian GP when he locked up at Turn 4 in their fight for the win. An almost identical incident into T1 even saw Piastri almost run into Norris in the Hungarian GP.