Martin Brundle shares the advice he’d give Lando Norris to overturn Oscar Piastri’s big championship lead

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Lando Norris fell further behind Oscar Piastri in the 2025 F1 title fight following his retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix and is in need of a big turnaround in the final nine races of the season if he is to realise his dream of becoming a world champion.

The 25-point swing in favour of Oscar Piastri saw the British driver fall to a 34-point deficit to his McLaren teammate.

Norris was forced to retire just seven laps from the chequered flag. McLaren had never seen the issue crop up previously, with an oil fitting in the sidepod of his MCL39 failing him in the closing stages of the race.

F1 rival and off-track friend Max Verstappen offered Norris some advice in the media pen following the conclusion of the race. The four-time world champion is well-versed in title fights and came back from a deficit to Lewis Hamilton in 2021 to win the title.

Former F1 driver and iconic Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle is the latest figure in the F1 paddock to offer his advice to Norris ahead of the final nine rounds of the season.

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Martin Brundle tells Lando Norris not to dwell on Zandvoort and deliver something ‘unbelievable’ at Monza

Speaking in the paddock ahead of Sky Sports F1’s coverage of FP1 at the Italian Grand Prix, Brundle shared what he would tell Norris if he were in the McLaren garage at Monza following his heartbreaking retirement in the Netherlands.

“What I would say to Lando is what goes around, comes around in this business,” said Brundle (12:11 05/09). “We’ve got a tight first corner down there with the fourth-longest run of the season down to it. And there’s a long way to go, nine Grand Prix, three sprint races.

“I don’t think he’s in a position where he should throw caution to the wind. There’s an element of, well, I’ve got nothing to lose now, but this championship, there’s a lot of points, and Oscar’s the first to say, I’ve been here before, actually leading a championship, and lost a lot of ground in the closing stages.

“So there’s no point in Lando wasting one heartbeat thinking about Zandvoort, because he can’t change it all, and it will become a double negative.”

Brundle then went on to describe how the 25-year-old needs to perform in the remaining races, identifying what he has seen in previous drivers who have had their backs against the wall in the final stint of the season.

“What we tend to see here now is, and I’ve talked about this before in the last few races, is drivers that are up for a championship find an overdrive, and they just deliver something almost unbelievable,” Brundle told his co-hosts.

“If Lando’s got an overdrive in there, this weekend is the time to show it and to deliver a dominant victory, if he can.”

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What does Lando Norris need to do in order to win the 2025 F1 championship?

Norris needs to be perfect from here on out to stand a chance of winning the title if Piastri doesn’t end up suffering from a similar fate to his own in Zandvoort.

With the gap now standing at 34 points and Piastri in fine form, Norris will be pleased to remember the fact that there are still nine Grands Prix and three Sprint races left to be contested.

If the Brit takes the chequered flag ahead of Piastri in second over the next five Grands Prix, including the Sprint in Austin, he will regain control of the drivers’ championship for the first time since before the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in April.

He then needs to keep the Australian driver behind him over the succeeding races to lengthen out his championship lead. Norris has vowed to look ahead to the remaining races and not dwell too much on his misfortunes in Zandvoort.

It is the only course of action for him to be able to claw his way back into Piastri’s comfortable buffer at the top of the standings.