For the past few years, the motorsport community has been living with the belief that McLaren, in the person of Lando Norris, has found a long-term leader. For a long time, the Briton really made a strong impression, but the current season, with Norris’ frequent mistakes and his teammate Piastri’s early successes, made me wonder: is Lando’s position within the team really so unshakable?
For many years, Norris walked around with the status of a young, promising driver who, someday in the foreseeable future, would definitely become a champion, but not today – McLaren’s status did not allow talking about such things really seriously. However, this year the Orange finally achieved the status of a top team. By the middle of the season, McLaren had come close to Red Bull in terms of pure speed, and in the second part of the championship it completely pulled away, becoming the most formidable force.
Thus, for the first time in six years of his Formula 1 career, Lando Norris became a regular participant in the battles for victory. What kind of victories? The British driver had a very real chance of competing for the title. Due to new circumstances, Norris had to transform overnight from a promising racer into a man who should lead the team.
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And it cannot be said that Lando does a great job of being the real leader of the team. Yes, before Norris was really McLaren’s main hope and support, but as soon as the Briton had a real chance to compete for the title, he weakened a little. The first thing that catches the eye are the failed starts. This season, Lando started from pole four times and finished the first lap as the leader exactly 0 times. And if at Zandvoort Norris managed to regain first place, at Catalunya and Hungaroring a bad start cost him the victory, and at Monza it cost him second place.
The Briton had another unsuccessful start at Spa-Francorchamps: he ran so wide out of the first corner that he scattered dust on the gravel, causing him to lose three positions at once. Remember that all this happened in a race in which Verstappen started 11th. Imagine how many points Norris could theoretically make up on his main rival. But in reality, Lando finished behind the Dutchman.
Looking at the actual numbers, Norris’ situation looks even sadder. McLaren has had the fastest car in the last four races – it would seem like an excellent opportunity to get closer to Verstappen in the individual competition. However, Lando cannot say that he took direct advantage of the current situation. Norris has only one victory in four Grands Prix, although the potential of the car clearly allowed him to count on more. To put it in perspective, in this segment Lando scored 70 points – just three more than Leclerc and three less than Piastri!
How many points did Norris lose?
How much did Norris lose in half a season? We count the mistakes of the British and their strategists.
There was a time when many neutral fans were furious at the dominance of Verstappen, Hamilton and Schumacher. Some even called their titles “important”, but only Max, Lewis and Michael, unlike Norris, used the technical advantage to the maximum. And if a good driver is determined by the ability to make the most of the car, then for a good driver the main criterion when evaluating his performance is precisely the ability to take advantage of a technical advantage, i.e. to make the most of the competition for victories. Is Norris using his McLaren to its full potential? Hardly.
If Norris still misses out on the title this year, his position within the team could be seriously affected and his teammate will of course contribute to this. Piastri is only in his second season in F1, but he is already making a very good impression. Yes, the Australian also has unsuccessful races, but in Oscar’s case, individual failures can be attributed to inexperience – Norris can no longer afford that luxury.
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Photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images
The most valuable thing Piastri has (besides speed, of course) is potential. It is too early to call Oscar a mature driver, so we have the right to expect more progress from him. Even though the Australian already looks pretty decent compared to his more experienced teammate. Piastri was fastest on the Monaco street acrobatic track, won the start at the Hungaroring and was hard, but within the rules, ahead of Norris at Monza.
Let’s go back to the numbers again. Oscar performed better than Lando in the last four stages, the same ones in which McLaren had the fastest car in the field. Does this mean that the much younger Piastri is mentally better prepared than his teammate to fight for victories? Quite possible. Well, the exact answer will be discovered based on the results of this championship. And if Norris fails in the season finale, McLaren may be represented by a completely different driver in the championship race next year.
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