Oscar Piastri has been even worse than Daniel Ricciardo in vital part of Lando Norris McLaren battle

Oscar Piastri is a successor to Daniel Ricciardo in more ways than one. He replaced him at McLaren, but he’s also become Australia’s next F1 superstar.

McLaren paid Ricciardo a whopping £23.6m at the end of 2022 as part of a separation agreement. He still had a year to run on his deal, but Zak Brown and co. decided that they needed to make a change.

They had just won a protracted legal battle with Alpine for the services of Piastri, an F2 and F3 champion. Ricciardo’s form plummeted to unrecognisable depths during his two years at Woking, and Piastri looked like a future world champion.

Thus far, the signing has been a success. Piastri mirrored McLaren’s improvement as his rookie year went on, scoring two podiums and a Sprint victory in the autumn. This year, he found another level and bagged his first Grand Prix win in Hungary, followed by an even more impressive triumph in Azerbaijan.

Half a season after his McLaren axe, Ricciardo returned to F1 with AlphaTauri. He hoped to revive his career, but he lasted just over a year before losing his seat for good.

In Piastri, Australia may have a driver with an even higher ceiling than Ricciardo, who won eight races. He’ll be joined on next year’s grid by Jack Doohan, who partners Pierre Gasly at Alpine.

Oscar Piastri’s qualifying record against Lando Norris compares poorly to Daniel Ricciardo

Brown feels he now has the best driver line-up on the grid. McLaren’s constructors’ title success – their first since 1998 – justifies that claim.

Based on the team’s form this year and the minimal changes to the regulations, both Norris and Piastri will have a chance to win the world championship in 2025. Norris is the more likely after finishing 82 points ahead of his teammate.

He led the race day head-to-head 17-7, but in part that’s down to the extent of his qualifying advantage. In terms of outright pace, they were the fourth-closest duo on the grid, but Norris almost always had that marginal edge.

The final score was an eye-catching 21-3. Among partnerships that lasted the whole season, only Max Verstappen (23-1 vs Sergio Perez) was more dominant.

As the table above shows, Piastri has a poorer overall qualifying record at McLaren (relative to Norris) than Ricciardo. The expectations were very different given their respective experience levels, but it’s still an area the 23-year-old must work on.

New RB signing Isack Hadjar was completely wrong about Oscar Piastri at McLaren

McLaren will work with Piastri on one-lap pace over the winter. That’s according to his engineer Tom Stallard.

The current deficit doesn’t mean that Norris simply has more raw speed. In modern F1, tyre preparation on the out-lap – and management during the lap itself – is also crucial.

Jolyon Palmer spotted the ‘massive gulf’ between Piastri and Norris on a Saturday. He knows he has to beat the Englishman to win the championship, and it’ll be near-impossible to do so if he’s starting behind at almost every race.

Before he made his F1 debut, Isack Hadjar predicted Piastri would ‘destroy’ Norris. While he’s certainly lived up to the hype, McLaren remains Norris’ team for the moment.