Inside McLaren’s F1 title fight

Lando Norris made an extremely relaxed impression as he faced the media on Thursday in the Monza paddock, which would have been curious if it hadn’t been for his similarly remarkable restraint after last week’s hammer blow in Zandvoort.

With his gap to Oscar Piastri suddenly swelling to 34 points after an engine oil line on his McLaren broke – an issue on the team’s side and not Mercedes’ – Norris will have his work cut out to overhaul his McLaren team-mate, who has also had a slight edge on him over the past four race weekends.

Norris would have been forgiven for an emotional response to his crippling DNF, but four days on the 25-year-old explained why he took the philosophical route.

“Of course, it’s frustrating,” he admitted. “But at the same time the reason makes it pretty easy to just move on from it.

“If it was something I did, I’d probably be still kicking myself or I’d still be pretty down about it. But I think the fact it had nothing to do with me made it pretty easy just to go: ‘Well, that’s life.’
 
“You know, what can I do? So it’s surprisingly easy probably for myself to put it behind and look ahead to this weekend. That’s what I’m excited for.”

Minutes earlier, Piastri also showed little enthusiasm for the gap he suddenly enjoyed, which on balance is arguably deserved but still bigger than it should have been.

While the calculated Piastri has been compared to four-time world champion Alain Prost, the Australian ‘Professor’ isn’t going to start doing the maths just yet.

“Honestly, [it changes] very little. In one of my own championships I’ve had a much bigger gap than this and had it pretty much erased before the final round,” he said.

“So I’ve got personal experience of this not being a comfortable gap. It’s still far too early to be calculating and settling for positions that aren’t first, so the approach is still exactly the same. That won’t change until the gap is pretty significantly bigger or the amount of races is significantly smaller.”

What else can Norris do?

After Zandvoort, Norris did promise to “go for it” from now on, but short of barging Piastri off the road, which is not in his character, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot Norris can do differently. So, in which areas could he actually be more aggressive?

“I mean, I can’t necessarily, you know,” Norris replied when quizzed by Motorsport.com. “Not from a racing point of view. I’ve just got to be on top more in qualifying. I’ve got to be a bit more on it and sharp with various things here and there in racing, decisions, strategy.

“I can’t do a lot more because I feel like I’m doing already everything I can, so it’s not like this was a trigger and now I can suddenly start doing more.

“I’ve been pretty happy with a lot of my performances, we are just talking about very small margins here and there that can make big differences. So I’m happy, I know I have to improve things, I’m working on them and that’s all I can continue to do for now.”

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff recently suggested McLaren should just let its two drivers have at it and race as they see fit. But from his side, Piastri is equally not anticipating Norris racing him more aggressively, flirting with the boundaries of McLaren’s infamous papaya rules.

“I don’t think so. He’s certainly not out of the fight,” he opined. “Yes, it’s a bit more difficult now, but I don’t expect much to change. I think we’ll race each other the same way. I think the amount of risk-taking will be the same.

“We’re both trying to drive as fast as we can. It’s not like we’ve been holding anything back from that side of things.”

Photo by: Erik Junius

“May the best driver win”

With nine races to go, it’s not like Norris is running out of time just yet. But what is counting against him is the McLaren dominance that gave him a title shot to begin with.
 
But even if Norris does find an edge on Piastri more often than not, McLaren’s advantage is such that his team-mate is unlikely to finish several positions behind him.
 
“It would certainly make my life easier if there was just some more drivers in between every now and then,” he said, acknowledging the twist of irony underpinning his hopes.

“The thing is, we’re so dominant as a team that it almost makes my life harder, so that’s really the most frustrating part of it all.”
 
But Norris still feels that he can get the job done without Piastri suffering a severe issue of his own. “I can still win the championship without anything happening and that’s the way I wish to do it,” he added, without wishing any ill will towards his rival either.
 
“No, because in the end, if he’s done a better job, I give credit to him and I say he’s done a better job,” he said. “That’s just how I am. I don’t wish it [upon him].”