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How Piastri’s giant step over Norris hurts McLaren

“It wasn’t my fault, so there’s nothing I can really do. It’s just not my weekend.

“A little bit unlucky yesterday with the wind and unlucky today … Out of my control. Tough one. Of course it’s frustrating. It hurts a bit for sure in a championship point of view. It’s a lot of points to lose so quickly and so easily. There’s nothing I can control now, so I’ll just take it on the chin and move on.”

Lando Norris was putting a brave face on his retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix, but while the puff of smoke from his McLaren can’t be taken to represent his championship hopes, it certainly allowed Oscar Piastri to pull into the distance both literally and figuratively.

The gap had been nine points heading into the Zandvoort weekend, and Norris looked every bit the match for Piastri but did not quite get the job done in qualifying. Whether that was wind-affected on Saturday or not, he had put the pressure on his teammate throughout without being able to make a move, and the tiny margins that separated the pair on Saturday was set to be the defining factor of the race weekend.

And then the one thing that McLaren didn’t want to happen this year, happened. Something outside the driver’s control cost one of its two contenders a major haul of points.

“Reliability has been a strong point at McLaren for a long time,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said. “We have had today what looks like a technical reliability problem, which is always disappointing, but I would say that is even more inconvenient because it affects a situation in which we, as a team, wanted to stay as neutral as possible in what is the driver’s individual quest in the drivers’ championship.

“So it’s not ideal that we had a problem with the car, but that’s what it is.

The whole team will process this, trying to learn, reviewing the problem, fixing it and making sure that this is not a factor anymore for the future, not only for the reminder of the championship, even if obviously this is the main focus for the moment.”

Will Norris have to take a more aggressive approach now the gap has widened? Joe Portlock/Getty Images

It’s a compliment to McLaren that the failure came as such a surprise, and also a compliment to both drivers that it carries such weight. Norris and Piastri have been so closely matched that since the wet-weather chaos of Melbourne, the biggest points swing between the two was 13 in Saudi Arabia, where Norris recovered to fourth and Piastri won.

Over the past four rounds the biggest difference was eight – courtesy of Piastri finishing one place ahead in the Sprint as well as the main race in Belgium – so the 25-point gain for the leader on Sunday in Zandvoort is akin to the return over roughly three race weekends on recent form.

“The only thing I can do is try to win every race,” Norris says of how it impacts his title hopes. “That’s going to be difficult, but I’ll make sure I give it everything I can.

“I thought obviously this weekend was good. It wasn’t ever by much and I didn’t lose out by much in quali, but I felt always pretty on top of things and a couple of little areas to improve on. If it wasn’t for a little gust of wind down the start finish yesterday, I’d be on pole. I’m sure the race would have looked a bit different today.

“The pace was very strong today. There are so many positives. It’s just close. I have a good teammate. He’s strong. He’s quick in every situation, every scenario. It’s hard to get things back on someone who’s just good in pretty much every situation.

“Today is a different situation. It’s just unlucky. It’s not my fault. Sometimes that’s just racing. It certainly hasn’t helped the race. It’s only made it harder for me and put me under more pressure, but it’s almost a big enough gap now that I can just chill out about it and just go for it.”

From Piastri’s side, the Australian had shown sympathy towards Norris, but also does not deem the 34-point advantage as one he can start to utilize in the way he approaches the remaining races.

“No, I don’t think so. There’s still a long way to go. I need to keep pushing and trying to win races still. I wouldn’t say it’s a very comfortable margin. As we saw today, it can change with one DNF very, very quickly. So this far out from the end of the year, it’s not a comfortable gap.”

Piastri’s right on two fronts, with the failure a reminder that the McLaren car isn’t completely bulletproof, and he could easily suffer the same fate at some stage. But it also acknowledges the potential for Norris to perform at an even higher level if he’s in the right frame of mind.

“We talk about Lando, he’s one of the most fair, balanced, in a way I would almost say trustworthy individuals, before being so as a driver,” Stella adds. “So, when he says he’s going to be full commitment or whatever he said, it just means that if anything he will try to extract even more from his incredible potential. I look forward to seeing what Lando will be conditioned to express because we know that his talent is immense and I’m sure this situation in the championship will give him extra motivation to try and extract it.

“When it comes to the team, what’s important is that the team keeps racing in the same way we have gone racing so far. So staying as neutral as possible, facilitating the pursuit of their own aspirations for Lando and Oscar in a balanced way, in a fair way, in a sportsman-like way and that’s what we will continue to do.

“I don’t think there’s any change in the approach of the team that is triggered based on the fact that we have this situation inside.”

Externally, though, Stella believes it might be a development that adds extra excitement to the title race, as the previously tense give-and-take dynamic is replaced by Norris having to go more on the offensive.

“In the message that he gave from the radio while he was still in the car, Lando has already proven that he is processing the situation and he immediately kept his constructive mindset,” Stella noted. “He said, ‘That’s just out of our control, it’s just a bad luck incident. Nothing we could do, we will keep fighting.’

“So he has already said himself and I wouldn’t be surprised otherwise. He is a very mature person, like I said before, a very fair and a very balanced driver.

“We will give, if anything, maximum support to make sure that he is staying in the fighting spirit but, like we said before, I think this will come very naturally and, if anything, we may see even a better version of Lando because now is the time to extract, if there is anything more, even more out of his potential.

“So, I look forward to seeing Lando in the coming races. I’m sure this is going to be a great spectacle for Formula 1 and, if anything, it’s going to make the competition with Oscar even more interesting.”

It might change the way the title race plays out from here on in, but McLaren will hope it doesn’t prove to be the biggest deciding factor in who becomes champion in Abu Dhabi.