Marc Priestley says one comment about Lando Norris will get in Oscar Piastri’s head

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Oscar Piastri scored the fourth podium of his Formula 1 career at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend. The Australian profited from the late collision between Max Verstappen and teammate Lando Norris to finish second.

Piastri had been running in fifth place in the closing stages, but he passed the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and gained two spots as Verstappen and Norris both picked up punctures. It briefly looked as if he could challenge George Russell for victory but he wasn’t able to get close enough.

Piastri left the Red Bull Ring with a season-high 25 points in the bag after also finishing as the runner-up in the Sprint race. He executed a fine move around the outside of Norris at turn six and held him off in the closing stages.

The 23-year-old momentarily pressurised Verstappen but wasn’t able to add to the Sprint win he picked up in Qatar last year. He might have been able to take a maiden Grand Prix victory in Sunday’s race were it for a track limits violation in qualifying.

Piastri was due to start the race third on the grid but he lost his time after running off the circuit at T6. McLaren were furious and issued a challenge, but the decision stood and he dropped to seventh place.

Still, the Australian bounced back emphatically from the disappointment of the Spanish GP. Piastri qualified a season-worst ninth in Barcelona and had to settle for P7 in the race.

Marc Priestley fears Oscar Piastri will start to feel like no. 2 to Lando Norris

Speaking on his YouTube channel, BBC F1 pundit Marc Priestley said Piastri will be ‘wondering’ why Norris is a step ahead. The Englishman leads him 9-2 in qualifying and 8-3 in the races, though Piastri did close the gap in the standings to 44 points after the late drama in Austria.

Norris is far more experienced, having started 115 Grands Prix to Piastri’s 33. However, the former F2 winner has been dubbed a future world champion by his compatriot Alan Jones and would have hoped to be closer.

‘All the talk’ is that Norris is a legitimate ‘challenger’ to Verstappen, but ‘no one’ is saying the same about Piastri. If this continues, he will come to think of himself as McLaren’s ‘number two’.

“I can’t help feeling that he will start to be questioning and wondering why he’s not able to match Lando,” Priestley said. “All of the talk at the moment is about Lando and McLaren being a challenger.

“No one’s talking about Oscar being a challenger. Those are the kind of comments that really get in your head. Over time that will start to chip away at him. He’ll start to feel like a number two driver.”

Damon Hill makes big Piastri prediction for British Grand Prix

Around this time last year, McLaren made a huge step in performance. Norris scored their first podium of the year at Silverstone, and Piastri would have joined him were it for not a safety car that played right into the hands of Lewis Hamilton.

McLaren return to the British Grand Prix setting their sights on a first home win since 2008. They’ve proven they can be competitive at virtually every circuit in the MCL38.

As such, 1996 world champion Damon Hill believes Piastri could bag his maiden victory this weekend. He was apparently ‘very unlucky’ not to start in the top three in Austria.

Piastri admits his confidence behind the wheel reached an all-time low in Spain, but he will have repaired that damage in Spielberg. Passing Norris and then successfully keeping him at bay in the Sprint would have been a particularly big boost.

He’s now just six points behind the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who endured another poor weekend. Helmut Marko has previously said McLaren have the best driver line-up on the grid, and he may now fall victim to it.