Lando Norris will head into the Monaco Grand Prix 13 points behind Oscar Piastri after he finished in front of his McLaren teammate for the first time in four rounds at Imola.
Not since round three of the 2025 F1 season in Japan had Norris enjoyed the bragging rights at McLaren before overtaking Piastri for P2 in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. He also had to watch the Australian win three Grands Prix in a row and claim the lead of the championship.
Norris has only won one race so far this year, compared to Piastri’s four, following his victory in the season-opener in Australia. The Briton has since secured four P2 finishes, one P3 and a P4 result, along with winning the F1 Sprint in Miami thanks to the ideally-timed safety car.
Pitting under a late safety car in the Emilia Romagna GP also helped the Briton to take points out of his teammate’s lead. Norris gained a tyre advantage over Piastri at Imola with the late pit stop, but their brief fight thwarted the 25-year-old’s hope to chase after Max Verstappen.
Ralf Schumacher thinks Lando Norris will be ‘scared’ to make any mistake at the Monaco Grand Prix
But despite the Bristol-born pilot gaining some momentum at Imola, Ralf Schumacher thinks Norris will be ‘a little more scared’ than Piastri to make any mistake at the Monaco GP. Their internal fight for supremacy even hands McLaren an ‘interesting’ problem for their strategy.
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The 2025 Monaco GP will see two mandatory pit stops, with the FIA and F1 keen to prevent a repeat of Charles Leclerc’s 2024 triumph when he won without making a live pit stop after changing his tyres during the red flag for Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen’s first lap crash.
| Position | Drivers’ Championship | Points |
| 1 |
Oscar Piastri |
146 |
| 2 |
Lando Norris |
133 |
| 3 |
Max Verstappen |
124 |
| 4 |
George Russell |
99 |
| 5 |
Charles Leclerc |
61 |
| 6 |
Lewis Hamilton |
53 |
| 7 |
Andrea Kimi Antonelli |
48 |
So, it will be even more important for Norris or Piastri to be McLaren’s No1 driver during the Monaco GP to enjoy preferential treatment in the pit windows. But Schumacher feels Norris heads to the Principality not in the best mindset to push the limits around the narrow roads.
“McLaren may be the favourite,” Schumacher told Sky Germany. “But as far as the strategy is concerned, they often get in the way.
“Above all, they have to manage the qualifying lap around here. And this applies the most to Lando Norris. Here, the pressure on the driver is much, much higher.
“That means someone who is mentally having a hard time getting this to the point is a little more scared here, I say, to make a mistake [and] to go to the limit. So, it will be very, very interesting again who is in front.”
F1’s mandatory two pit stop rule in Monaco increases the importance of Norris or Piastri being McLaren’s lead driver
Schumacher is not the only person to raise the alarm for the Woking natives ahead of them heading to the Principality, as well. Bernie Collins claims McLaren ‘absolutely have to avoid’ pitting Norris or Piastri into traffic in Monaco after doing so ruined the latter’s race at Imola.
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Piastri started ahead of Norris on the road, but his race became an uphill struggle after they pitted the Australian on Lap 13 of 63 to try and force Red Bull to react with Verstappen. The Milton Keynes team were rather cruising after Verstappen overtook Piastri to lead at Imola.
Having to make two pit stops during the Monaco GP will only increase the threat that traffic will influence who wins in Monte Carlo. So, Norris and Piastri will certainly want to be in the best position to pit first when McLaren’s strategy team spot a gap to drop one of them into.
