McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will be preparing to do battle again at the Miami Grand Prix as the race to win the 2025 Formula 1 world championship continues on Sunday.
After an intense start to the 2025 F1 calendar, Oscar Piastri currently possesses a 10-point over his teammate Lando Norris.
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen is lurking in the background, but McLaren will understand that they need to take advantage of their impressive speed before any of their rivals can catch up.
The Miami Grand Prix offers Norris the chance to return to the scene of his first victory in Formula 1, but both drivers now have five wins to their name, highlighting the step forward they’ve taken over the last 12 months.
However, the recent triple-header saw Norris make a couple of unfortunate mistakes, while Piastri was almost faultless, winning twice and turning a deficit in the drivers’ championship into an advantage.
Jolyon Palmer has been analysing both drivers and believes he’s spotted something in Piastri that could give him the advantage in the championship fight that Norris simply doesn’t have at his disposal.
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Jolyon Palmer lauds ‘unflappable’ Oscar Piastri over Lando Norris
Palmer was speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast in the build-up to the next race in Miami.
Piastri has warned his team he won’t be making the same mistake as Norris, and Palmer explained the difference he’s seen in the two drivers in 2025 by saying, “You can look at the Saudi race, and Max getting the penalty, which definitely decided the race.
“But Oscar forced the penalty by executing the perfect start, and it’s not many times a driver can beat Max off the line into turn one.
“And then have the wherewithal to brake late to make sure Max can’t go around the outside, but not make the mistake yourself and go off the road.
“So, he just measured it perfectly and that won him the race.
“And I just think this unflappable quality that we’ve seen from him, it gives him a bit of an edge at the moment, which is not what we’ve seen from from Lando.”
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Lando Norris ‘bringing more pressure on himself’ in Oscar Piastri battle
Palmer was then reflecting on the calmness of Piastri’s team around him and continued, “The Norris team will see that as well, because, there’s no better place to see than in the same team.
“So, they’ll see all of this going on and the calm serenity around Oscar, which has just not been the case with Lando.
“We know he’s got the speed, but all of these little things, if it’s small Q3 errors if it’s track limits, and then a crash in Jeddah.
“And then it’s the way that Lando’s dealing with those as well in the media, and I feel like he’s just bringing more pressure on himself.
“I know he says that he doesn’t mind that and that’s his style.
“But I just look at it from the outside, I think you’re making your own narratives here, which is adding more pressure to yourself rather than playing it cool and moving on to the next one. He’s sort of dwelling on the mistakes more.”
People in the F1 paddock believe Piastri is now the favourite to win the title ahead of Norris, and much of that is down to his mindset and calmness.
He appears incredibly difficult to get under the Australian’s skin, and while McLaren will hope to manage the battle between their two drivers to make sure they still win the constructors’ championship, it’ll be interesting how he deals with Verstappen, George Russell and the Ferrari drivers if their teams suddenly take a step forward this season.
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