After five race weekends, there are some trends already emerging this season within the Formula 1 paddock.
Unsurprisingly, Max Verstappen is still dominating and the reliability issues he suffered in Australia appear to be a one-off occurrence.
Speaking on the Missed Apex Podcast, pundit and racing driver Bradley Philpot was reviewing last weekend’s action.
The gap between several sets of teammates appears to be growing or at least has been emphasised in recent weeks.
Aston Martin’s drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll couldn’t be further away from each other right now.
Logan Sargeant has still only scored a single point for Williams during his time with the team as Alex Albon continues to fight for top-ten finishes every weekend.
However, Philpot believes that while he’s not a huge fan of Lando Norris he’s starting to make his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri look ordinary.
The young Australian didn’t have the best weekend and in both races was unable to match Norris’s pace.
The damage he sustained during the Grand Prix has to be considered but doesn’t take away from the tyre degradation issues he’s facing at most circuits.
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Bradley Philpot worried about the difference between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
The main talking point of the Chinese Grand Prix was Stroll running into the back of Daniel Ricciardo after the first safety car restart.
The Canadian was penalised as a result and while Ricciardo was forced to retire, he also damaged Piastri’s diffuser in the process.
While that does excuse the fact that he couldn’t chase the Ferraris in front of him and ended up losing out to George Russell and Fernando Alonso, it doesn’t explain why he was so far away from Norris before that incident.
During the Sprint Race, Piastri was also left behind by Norris after the Brit lost several positions at the start despite putting his McLaren on pole, which has only enhanced his reputation in Philpot’s eyes.
Nico Rosberg admitted during the race that Piastri’s driving style has started to concern him.
The circuit in Shanghai caused very heavy tyre degradation and given that’s Piastri’s weak point, it was always going to be a tough weekend.
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Oscar Piastri has work to do to match McLaren teammate
Philpot: “Yeah, I think [Lando] Norris is absolutely mega. I’m not a fan of Norris yet because I’m a fan of drivers because of moments that I see on track and I don’t necessarily mean being the fastest, just things that I can’t even put my finger on it.
“But mainly off-track attitudes and general persona.
“I think he [Norris] is extremely high quality, I think he is one of those drivers who given the machinery is going to do the job and he seems to have in the short-term fended off the [Oscar] Piastri challenge.
“It looked like Piastri was maybe the person who was going to come and make Norris look a bit more ordinary but despite all the additional races that Piastri has now had to find his feet and get into a Formula 1 driver mentality, rather than reserve driver or Formula 2 champion.
“Norris is making him genuinely quite ordinary, Piastri is still kind of surviving on the good credit that he’s built up until this point, but that won’t go on forever.
“If Norris continues to be the person that tends to always be in front, even if it’s by just a couple of tenths, or tends to always be the person getting the podiums, then Norris is going to resume this role of one of the very next big things, one of the absolute top talents everyone is after.”
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While Philpot believes Norris is starting to make Piastri look ordinary, it shows the high standards the 23-year-old is already being held to.
Karun Chandhok was surprised by how well both drivers performed in qualifying which seems to be Piastri’s strength.
While he may not be able to match Norris’s raw pace, he makes less mistakes during qualifying, delivering more consistent performances on Saturdays.
However, Norris can reach another level during races and Piastri has to work out how he can do the same to live up to his very high potential.
The post ‘Absolutely mega’: ‘Extremely high quality’ driver is now making his teammate look ‘quite ordinary’ – pundit appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
