Norris slammed as McLaren teammate ‘same type’ as Verstappen in key area

Follow us on Google Discover

Allard Kalff claims Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen are two of the same in a key way that Kees van der Grint believes the McLaren driver’s teammate, Lando Norris, is not.

Piastri enjoyed a sensational run of form before the summer break as his debut F1 campaign hit new heights. The 22-year-old took full advantage of McLaren’s upgrades to start third for the British Grand Prix. He also qualified and finished second for the Sprint at the Belgian GP.

A sluggish start from Verstappen at Silverstone even saw Piastri challenge the Red Bull driver for second after Norris stole the lead. While the Australian backed up his drive at McLaren’s home round come the Hungarian GP. He and Norris locked out the second row of the grid.

McLaren producing a slow car to start the season meant Piastri could not fully demonstrate his potential. He also entered the 2023 season having not turned a wheel in anger in a race since December 2021. Alpine held him to a test driver role in 2022 after winning the F2 title.

Kalff believes Piastri and Verstappen are two of the same

The junior series title marked Piastri’s third championship in a row. He also won the Formula Renault Eurocup title in 2019 before sealing the F3 title in 2020. The Melbourne native beat Theo Pourchaire by three points and Williams’ Logan Sargeant by four points for the F3 title.

Piastri then dominated F2 in 2021 to beat runner-up Robert Shwartzman by 60.5 points and third-placed Zhou Guanyu, now of Alfa Romeo, by 69.5. And Kalff feels Piastri winning three-straight titles on his way to Formula One shows he shares Verstappen’s champion mentality.

“They are the same type, they have to fight for it,” Dutch analyst and former touring car ace Kalff said on Viaplay’s, ‘In de Slipstream’, as quoted by the Dutch edition of Motorsport.com. “He [Piastri] had to become [the] champion every time to continue.”

Verstappen made his F1 debut for Toro Rosso in 2015 on the back of winning the Zandvoort Masters in 2014. But he only finished the FIA European Formula 3 Championship in third in 2014. It was also the two-time F1 world champion’s only full season of single-seater racing.

But the Belgium-born star was a dominant force in karting before making his single-seater debut in 2014. Norris also won a handful of karting championships before stepping into a car for the first time. While a number of titles would then follow before Norris reached F1 in 2019.

Van der Grint slams Norris for lacking compared to his McLaren teammate

Norris won the 2015 MSA Formula Championship before sealing the 2016 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC and the Toyota Racing Series titles. The 2017 FIA Formula 3 European Championship would also follow before finishing second in F2 in 2018.

Given Norris did not always have to become the champion to progress, Van der Grint – the former head of Bridgestone’s Competition Department – believes he may lack compared to Piastri and Verstappen by not having a champion mentality to push for every tenth on offer.

Van der Grint replied to Kalff, adding: “Norris has a good social background. He had an easy childhood [and] he comes from a very wealthy family. There is nothing wrong with that. But that may mean that you are not interested in the last tenth [of a second].”