Components 1 journalist Peter Windsor believes Lando Norris has the potential to “simply beat” his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri within the 2025 season.
Final yr’s runner-up Norris gained Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix from pole place, scoring an necessary triumph on his teammate’s residence turf.
Each had wild moments as rain hit the Albert Park Circuit late within the race, however whereas Norris managed to maintain his oversteering automotive beneath management and rejoin the monitor, Piastri spun off the monitor and was beached on the grass.
It took a number of minutes for the Australian to reverse his automotive and resume the race, which meant that he might solely end ninth on a day he ought to have stood up on the rostrum.
Norris and Piastri are anticipated to be the primary contenders for the drivers’ championship this yr, along with Crimson Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen.
However Windsor feels it could be fairly tough Piastri to get well from the early setback and provides the British driver a run for his cash within the title combat.
“Oscar Piastri can be feeling sick as a canine I believe as a result of this was his second and it is gone now,” he mentioned on his YouTube channel.
“And Lando not solely gained the Australian Grand Prix however he has gained a giant preliminary battle, not even a skirmish, a giant battle with Oscar Piastri, as to if there may be going to be a world champion at McLaren, who’s it gonna be.
“It is not solely that he gained the race, however due to the best way that he gained the race, his faultless driving other than that one mistake, and the best way he received the pole as effectively. And that may be a lot for Piastri to take, and to attempt to react to, and are available again forward of Lando. Nearly not possible now, I feel.”
Windsor believes Norris and Piastri’s driving kinds have step by step converged at McLaren, with the latter not utilizing tighter traces on the apex of corners.
He thus believes Norris’ tendency to make fewer errors after a difficult 2024 season is giving him the sting over Piastri.
“We noticed a transparent indication of the place Oscar Piastri is along with his driving [in the early laps],” Windsor defined.
“They have been very shut, it was comparatively straightforward for Oscar to drag up behind Lando Norris, as a result of Lando was going as slowly as he wished to go with the intention to keep in entrance. Clearly within the lead and that was Oscar’s marker, so he can catch him nearly in all places.
“However he was doing so with broad entries, with late braking, with all of the issues that we noticed from Oscar Piastri on the again finish of final yr.
“The information is that he hasn’t gone again to his brief nook, very compact method of driving that we noticed early in his McLaren profession.
“He’s now successfully driving precisely the identical method as Lando Norris, besides that in fact Lando is slightly bit softer along with his inputs and makes fewer errors in consequence and he’s massaging the automotive slightly bit extra.
“However when it comes to the best way they approached the nook, the place they’re placing the facility down, just about spot on, similar now.
He added: “So on this scenario, if this continues for the yr, little question that in any respect that Lando Norris goes to simply beat Oscar Piastri as a result of he’s going to make fewer errors and he’s softer along with his enter throughout.
“The one method Oscar was ever going to do something with Lando could be if he can return to being an actual brief nook driver and doing one thing completely different, notably on the slower, medium-speed corners.”
