Oscar Piastri admits McLaren driver’s ‘not consistent enough’ to beat Lando Norris in key area

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McLaren are the favourites to win the Formula 1 constructors’ title in 2024, but Oscar Piastri is having to play the team game to help Lando Norris mount a drivers’ title bid.

Team principal Andrea Stella put all of the papaya outfit’s eggs in the Norris basket following the Italian Grand Prix. Electing against issuing team orders sooner saw Piastri pass Norris on the first lap at Monza, which set into motion a chain of events that saw Charles Leclerc win.

But McLaren are still yet to need to ask Piastri to accent being their No2 driver on the circuit thanks to Norris’ Q1 exit at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where the former went on to win. The Singapore Grand Prix then saw Norris dominate with 2024’s second-biggest winning margin.

Oscar Piastri pinpoints qualifying as where Lando Norris still has the edge at McLaren

It is still a long shot for Norris to win the drivers’ title, with the 24-year-old trailing Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 52 points with six rounds to go. A first constructors’ title since 1998 is an increasingly more likely victory for McLaren, who lead Red Bull by 41 points after 18 rounds.

Piastri, meanwhile, sits fourth in the drivers’ standings with a 94-point deficit to Verstappen and a 42-point gap to Norris. Yet the 23-year-old has scored more points than every driver across the last 11 rounds. Piastri has scored 184 points since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

READ MORE: F1 2024 teammate head-to-head battles including race, Sprint and qualifying

But while Piastri has also gotten on top of the tyre management issues which often hindered his rookie season last term, the Australian still sees scope to improve. Qualifying is especially an area Piastri wants to improve to regularly be a match for Norris in the other McLaren car.

“My qualifying results,” Piastri admitted is what the Melbourne native still needs to work on to Auto Motor und Sport. “I’m never far away from Lando, but I’m not consistent enough.

“It’s not a lack of speed. I know that if I put the lap together properly, I can get pole position anywhere. In Singapore, I was too hard on the gas in the last sector.”

Lando Norris is beating Oscar Piastri 14-4 in Grand Prix and 2-1 in F1 Sprint Qualifying in 2024

After the first 18 of 24 Grand Prix in the 2024 Formula 1 season, Norris is leading Piastri 14-4 in the McLaren head-to-head qualifying battle. The Bristol-born star also has a 2-1 lead over the Australian during the F1 Sprint Qualifying sessions, ahead of the fourth of this term’s six.

Piastri will hope to move level with Norris at least in their F1 Sprint Qualifying head-to-head at the United States Grand Prix next time out. Single-lap pace has rarely been where he has thrived this season, with Piastri truly beating Norris just three times in Grand Prix qualifying.

Taking into account Norris’ Q1 exit in Baku plus Piastri failing to set a representative time in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, the former effectively holds a 13-3 lead in Grand Prix qualifying sessions. Norris has also been 0.138 seconds a lap faster than Piastri on average.