McLaren see clear advantage that will ‘pay off’ for Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri in 2025 F1 title fight

Lando Norris secured the lead of the F1 drivers’ championship at the first round of the 2025 season, but has since seen McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri gain the advantage.

The Briton led the standings for the first time in his career and also dethroned Red Bull racer Max Verstappen for the first time in 1,029 days after Norris won the Australian Grand Prix in March. Yet Piastri turned a 23-point deficit into a 10-point lead in only the next four rounds.

Piastri sustained an early blow to his F1 driver’s championship hopes on home soil when the Melbourne native spun whilst running in second place amid the late rain in Australia, before recovering to P9. But the 24-year-old has since been the in-form McLaren pilot to pip Norris.

Lando Norris’ race engineer hints his greater experience can ‘pay off’ against Oscar Piastri

Norris has only finished ahead of Piastri in qualifying or a Grand Prix in Japan since being the top McLaren in Australia. He was also arguably not the faster McLaren at Suzuka after Piastri paid the price for high winds coaxing an error in Q3 and could not then manage an overtake.

They headed to Japan after Piastri won the Chinese Grand Prix from his first pole position in F1, which also marked the start of his comeback. McLaren even saw Piastri dominate to win the Bahrain Grand Prix from pole before later winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from P2.

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Victory in Jeddah last time out further gifted Piastri the lead of the drivers’ championship for the first time. But Norris’ race engineer Will Joseph has now indicated that the Briton has an advantage to Piastri given the Australian’s lack of experience at some tracks on the calendar.

“A driver in their third year has only ever been to a certain track twice before in an F1 car,” Norris’ race engineer Joseph told RacingNews365.

“Every bit of experience counts, and you need multiple seasons to get that vast amount of experience to put the bigger picture together. That starts to pay off progressively.”

Oscar Piastri is already proving McLaren engineer Will Joseph wrong with his championship-leading form

Norris will hope Joseph is right to imply he has an advantage, having been on the grid since the 2019 F1 season compared to Piastri joining McLaren for his debut in 2023. But the latter is already proving Norris’ race engineer wrong owing to Piastri’s championship-leading form.

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While McLaren expected Norris would lead them into 2025 over Piastri, it is the 24-year-old and not the 25-year-old who has led their title hope since round two. Also, Norris conceded McLaren’s 2025 car does not suit him in China after trailing Piastri in the Sprint and the race.

Norris’ problems have continued throughout the rounds in Japan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to see Piastri move atop the standings, too. His eagerness to hit back even saw Norris crash in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP trying to match the speed Piastri could carry in Turn 4.