Lando Norris has broadly managed to keep his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in check so far this season. Norris is significantly more experienced, with 112 race starts to Piastri’s 30.
As such, his superiority in the intra-team battle is expected. He leads the Australian 6-2 in both the qualifying and race-day head-to-heads.
Norris scored McLaren’s first victory since 2021 at the Miami Grand Prix earlier this month. He’s bagged four podiums overall in the first eight races.
Piastri, meanwhile, had to wait until last weekend’s race in Monaco for his first top-three finish of the campaign. It was an event where he definitively out-performed Norris.
The 23-year-old was quicker on Saturday, earning a front-row start alongside Charles Leclerc while Norris had to settle for fourth. They held those positions on Sunday, enabling Piastri to trim the gap between the two in the championship to 42 points.
This was only the second time all season that the former F2 champion has out-qualified and out-raced the Briton. The first was at the Saudi Arabian GP back in early March.
Since, then, Piastri has shown flashes of what he can do without managing to beat Norris in a meaningful session. He set the second-fastest lap time behind Max Verstappen in Imola qualifying before incurring a three-place grid penalty, and had also challenged for the win in Miami before succumbing to misfortune.
Lando Norris aware of Oscar Piastri advantage in fast corners
In a Q&A for BBC Sport, journalist Andrew Benson was asked whether he sees Piastri winning races this year and doing so ‘regularly’ in the future. He replied that the Melbourne-born racer is ‘the real deal’.
While Norris has clearly been the quicker of the two so far in their partnership, there’s one area where ‘Norris admits Piastri often has the edge’ – high-speed corners. And as he gains more experience, he’s bound to improve other facets of his driving too.
For instance, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella revealed in Monaco that he’d talks with Piastri over improving his tyre management. They’ve seen make him real strides in that department in recent races.
In addition to his sporting talents, he’s also ‘remarkably composed and calm’. And this will stand him in good stead as he pursues a first Grand Prix victory to go along with his triumph in the Qatar Sprint last year.
Zak Brown admits McLaren duo Norris and Piastri will tangle
The relationship between Norris and Piasti remains outwardly cordial for the moment, but some would say that can only last so long. When two closely-matched drivers are consistently competing for race wins, as McLaren are doing now, then tension is inevitable.
The Woking outfit have already acknowledged this. Zak Brown says ‘it’s a matter of when not if’ his two drivers ‘tangle’, but he’s urged them to respect the ‘rules of engagement’ and not drum up any controversy in the media.
McLaren will endeavour to keep the partnership together for as long as possible in the belief that it’s the best on the grid. Norris is under contract until the end of 2028 after a winter extension, while Piastri is committed to the end of 2026 after penning fresh terms midway through last season.
Both drivers will justifiably see themselves as future world champions. And though Red Bull view them as possible successors to Max Verstappen, McLaren will hope that they’re one day battling for the title in their colours.
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