Should McLaren back Norris or Piastri? Our F1 writers have their say

Norris should follow Piastri’s example and be easier on himself – Jake Boxall-Legge

Across the most recent eight rounds of this year’s championship, Oscar Piastri has added 126 points to his name, while Norris trails slightly having accrued 116. You can argue the toss over who deserved the Hungary win; Piastri’s opening stints were stronger, but Lando Norris made the decision difficult in his final stint with exceptional pace. However, there was no question over who was quicker at Spa.

PLUS: Was the Belgian Grand Prix Piastri’s best F1 race yet?

The area that has separated Piastri and Norris thus far has been tyre management. Norris, with four years’ extra experience of massaging his Pirelli tyres over a race stint, had carried the upper hand into 2024 with his conversion of early management into searing late-race pace. But the Australian is converging and sits within a hair’s breadth of becoming his equal on that front. And Norris knows this.

McLaren should have already won more than two races this season. Strategies have not straddled the perfect line between risk and conservatism, and pace has arrived too late into a race to make a difference. That Norris didn’t win in Barcelona and Hungary came down to fumbled starts, and his first-lap shakes continued at Spa when he took the exit of La Source too wide and lost critical momentum.

Piastri, meanwhile, is much more assured. There’s a detachedness behind the wheel, one that entwines with his affable and down-to-earth personality. He seems to be able to compartmentalise his human emotions from the act of racing, demonstrated on his team radio with a calmness – almost bordering on dry humour. He accepts he’ll make mistakes and also accepts that he can recover from them, while Norris tends to deal in self-flagellation, which seems to bring his mood down even further to create a cycle.

It’s very clear that Piastri is learning from Norris in how to take a tyre stint to the next level, and his outright pace is already on his team-mate’s level. Carry that beyond the summer break, and we can start to consider that Piastri might have the upper hand.

For Norris to assert himself as team leader once again, he could do with a few lessons from his younger team-mate in being a little easier on himself. Not calling himself ‘stupid’ would be a good place to start.

McLaren must follow through on its brave equal driver culture – Filip Cleeren