Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are eyeing the world championship and have the fastest car on the F1 grid but McLaren may eventually have to make a decision on who they back
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are both looking to deliver the world title at McLaren(Image: Formula 1 via Getty Images)
Former Formula 1 star Ralf Schumacher believes McLaren have “internally decided that Oscar Piastri is the man” that will deliver them a the world championship with Lando Norris still too error prone.
McLaren have the fastest package on the grid and lead both championships with Piastri currently 22 points ahead of Norris. That was aided by a retirement from the Brit last time out in Canada after he crashed into the back of his Australian team-mate.
The team have adopted a ‘let them race’ approach but so far Piastri has had the edge over Norris, who has long been seen as the team’s darling. The Aussie has won five of the ten races this season, underlining his own championship credentials.
Norris has claimed two victories but some believe he lacks the mental capacity to see off his team-mate, who has shown his killer instinct in the past. McLaren refused to back Norris over Piastri last season when he attempted to chase down Max Verstappen for the title.
This year they’ve still opted against picking a No 1 driver with both men free to pursue their ambitions, but inside the garage Schumacher believes they will have identified Piastri as the man to take them forward.
He told Sky Germany: “I believe that it is now internally decided that Piastri is the man the team will focus on in terms of the World Championship. Lando shows too many weaknesses and makes too many mistakes, including his senseless driving into the back of Oscar in Canada.”
Norris was out qualified by Piastri in Montreal but some strong race pace saw him chase down his team-mate. In the closing laps he looked to overtake his colleague but got his move wrong down the pit straight, later holding his hands up and owning his mistake.
Lando Norris retired from the Canadian Grand Prix(Image: Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
“He has apologised and that shows what a great person he is,” said Schumacher. “But it’s no use, because great people rarely win titles.”
McLaren were always open and honest and confessed that their strategy would inevitably lead to their two driver crashing on track. Team boss Andreas Stella has confessed that Norris’ incident at Canada may have impacted his confidence with the team needing to help him back.
He said: “Obviously it’s an episode which cost him championship points. It’s an episode that for his own admission he said, ‘the principle was clear, I just made a misjudgement’. He never came to say, ‘let’s talk about it’. This may have an impact in terms of his confidence, but it’s up to us as a team to show our full support to Lando.”