How Lando Norris found his killer instinct

SAO PAULO — Over the past two Formula One race weekends in Mexico and Brazil, Lando Norris has gone some way towards achieving his goal of winning the 2025 world championship.

He now has a lead of 24 points over his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, and he is 49 ahead of reigning champion Max Verstappen, whose challenge has faltered just as Norris has hit a golden streak of form.

Norris may have a healthy buffer, but there are still 83 points to be won over the final three events in Las Vegas, Qatar (where there is also a sprint) and Abu Dhabi, so the job is far from done.

F1 standings

• Lando Norris (McLaren) 390 points
• Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 366
• Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 341
• George Russell (Mercedes) 276
• Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 214

Indeed if he hits trouble in Vegas and fails to score and Piastri wins, the Aussie will be back in the lead by a point. This eventful season could yet have a few surprises in store.

However the momentum is clearly now with Norris, and the turnaround in his fortunes relative to Piastri has been an extraordinary story.

What happened to Piastri?

For much of this season the unflappable young Aussie had the upper hand, and it was Norris who at times dropped the ball, hitting his teammate in the Canadian race, and making costly mistakes when the pressure was on in qualifying.

Despite the 25-year-old’s greater experience – this is his seventh year in F1 and only Piastri’s third – he seemed to be struggling more with the relentless challenges of being in a hard-fought title campaign, with the sport’s ultimate prize at stake.

Over the past couple of months both men have had to contend not just with each other, but also with outside challenger Verstappen. Helped by a much improved car, the Red Bull driver went from nowhere in the title race to breathing down the neck of the two McLaren drivers.

Verstappen’s winning momentum ran out in Mexico, where his Red Bull wasn’t quite up to speed. Instead Norris used that weekend to put any demons behind him and stake his claim to the title with an utterly dominant performance from pole that left Piastri trailing in fifth place as he struggled to come to terms with the track.

Norris put himself into the lead of the championship, albeit by a single point. In Brazil he took another step by winning the Saturday sprint race from pole, while Piastri crashed out of third in bizarre circumstances on a puddle splashed onto the track from a kerb by none other than Norris. It was yet another low for Piastri after his accidents in both qualifying and the race in Azerbaijan, and the first corner collision in the Austin sprint that also took out Norris.

And as Norris again dominated in Sunday’s Sao Paulo GP Piastri found himself in trouble again, clipping Kimi Antonelli and landing a 10-second penalty that contributed to another lowly fifth place finish.

The penalty was questionable, but it was a further sign that the cards aren’t falling for him and that he has lost the winning mojo that served him so well until just a couple of months ago.

Piastri himself acknowledged how his luck has changed: “It’s just very, very fine margins and tough moments, and things that could easily go either way that are creating big consequences at the moment.”

What has changed for Norris?

Norris in contrast can do no wrong. After the Brazilian race he suggested that the secret is avoiding the distraction of the inevitable noise and criticism as the battle ramps up.

“Just ignore everyone that talks crap about you!,” he said. “Yeah, just focus on yourself and the team. McLaren are doing an amazing job, giving me a great car. We’re pushing hard every single weekend, and I’m pushing hard away from the track.”

He’s dealt with the low points, absorbed the blows, and bounced back as a stronger individual and a better racing driver, something that his McLaren team boss Andrea Stella confirms.

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Asked by The i Paper if he has noticed a change in Lando’s confidence, the Italian said: “I think what we are seeing with Lando is just an ability to exploit his potential from a driving point of view, but also what we see is an evolution as a driver.

“There’s been quite a lot of work around Lando, with Lando, led by Lando, in terms of evolving from a personal point of view, gaining the resilience that is required in this kind of competition.”

Can Norris continue his run over these last three races and finish the job? If he does he will certainly be a worthy world champion – and one the country can be proud of.