Oscar Piastri told the new ‘weakness’ he must fix to fight Lando Norris for F1 title is not ‘nerves’

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Oscar Piastri has developed one “weakness” that could cost him the 2025 F1 drivers’ title, having now fallen to 24 points behind teammate Lando Norris in the standings.

McLaren are once again looking on course to claim their first championship double since the 1998 season, when Mika Hakkinen won his first drivers’ title. The Woking outfit have already retained the constructors’ title and are now looking to win their first drivers’ title since 2008.

Norris leads the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship with 390 points, with the only Grands Prix in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi plus the Sprint at Lusail remaining. Piastri sits second in the standings with 366 points ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third place with 341 points.

The 24 points between the papaya pals following last weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix marks Norris’ biggest lead over Piastri all term. Norris won the F1 Sprint in Brazil and the Sao Paulo GP, both from pole position, to punish Piastri’s crash in the Sprint in Brazil and P5 in the race.

Oscar Piastri told to fix his qualifying ‘weakness’ after falling 24 points behind Lando Norris

Piastri’s 10-second penalty in the Sao Paulo GP for his collision with Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes, which also forced Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc to retire, helped to pile more misery on a wretched visit to Interlagos for the Australian. He lost 23 points to Norris in Brazil alone.

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

But Christian Danner does not believe Piastri has crumbled under the “nerves” of the papaya pals’ tussle for the F1 title. Instead, he thinks the 24-year-old has developed a “weakness” in qualifying, which was regularly Norris’ limitation through the first half of the 2025 F1 season.

Danner told sport.de: “Piastri’s problem isn’t nervousness or nerves. Every driver makes that move in Turn 1, regardless of their position. He needs to address his weakness in qualifying. We’ll see if he manages that in Las Vegas.”

Lando Norris has out-qualified Oscar Piastri 5-1 through the past six rounds

After Norris scored pole position for the Sao Paulo GP with a 1:09.511, compared to Piastri’s 1:09.886 for P4 on Interlagos’ grid, the Briton now edges the Australian 11-10 in their Grand Prix qualifying head-to-head. Piastri still pips Norris 3-2 for Sprint Qualifying results in 2025.

READ MORE: 2025 F1 teammate head-to-head standings, with race and qualifying results

Norris and Piastri have both reached Q3 during every qualifying session for a Grand Prix this year, and they are even the only drivers to do so. But Norris now has one more pole position than Piastri after the 25-year-old took his sixth of the season so far in Sao Paulo on Saturday.

Piastri scored his fifth and most recent pole position of the 2025 season for the Dutch Grand Prix in round 15 out of 24 at the end of August. At that stage, Norris had scored four poles in 2025 and trailed the 24-year-old from Melbourne 9-6 in their Grand Prix qualifying contest.

But Piastri only out-qualified Norris once in the past six rounds, when they took P3 and P5 at the Singapore Grand Prix. Norris making contact in his overtake for P3 in the Singapore GP riled Piastri, but it helped the Briton to outscore his teammate in each of the past six rounds.