Is Oscar Piatri the larger weapon of McLaren in the World Cup fight? “Yes,” says Red Bull’s motorsport consulent Helmut Marko when asked whether he thinks Piatri for the more dangerous opponent for Max Verstappen. No wonder: the Australian won four of the first six Grands Prix and clearly put his teammates in the shade.
Before the season, Lando Norris was actually a favorite on the internal tour of McLaren. It was the same in the 2024 season, in which Piatri had to drive in favor of the British at some point. Norris also came to the new Formula 1 year with a win in Australia with a win in Australia, but Piatri quickly took over the helm.
While Norris failed in the qualifying, Piatri hardly made any mistakes after his ride in Melbourne’s home game. He ended all other sprints and races on the podium and recently won the third victory in Miami in a row.
The wages are currently the World Cup lead, and if his compatriot Alan Jones is at the top, the McLaren pilot will be at the top anyway: “He is undoubtedly a future world champion,” says Jones in the program “The Back Page” on Fox Sports. “He came out of nowhere and brings all the properties that you need as a world champion.”
Alan Jones: Norris mentally weak
If Piatri became world champion, he would be the first Australian since Jones, who won the crown for Williams in 1980. If McLaren keeps his shape, then he would probably only have to defeat teammates Norris – and Jones thinks that is very likely.
“He can do it this year, no question. At the end of the day, his teammate is weak,” he says. “His teammate is pretty quick, there is no doubt about it. But mentally I think he is quite weak. He comes with all this nonsense that he has any mental problems, he depends more on the negative things instead of seeing the positive.”
“When you start talking to such nonsense, you know that you have them.”
They are sharp statements by the ex-world champion, who at the same time praises the calm and considered type of Piatri and says that he has “an old head on young shoulders”.
Brown: Everyone processes it in their own way
But there are also statements that McLaren managing director Zak Brown also noticed. “First of all: I am a big Alan-Jones fan,” emphasizes Brown, who also has its 1980 World Cup car. “I don’t want to reduce his value …”, he begins, but also makes it clear that he disagrees.
Above all, he does not see the weakness at Norris: “Lando is always very open in his statements. Some athletes talk a lot about what they do, others don’t – everyone processes it in their own way,” he says.
“So I don’t agree with the comments, but I understand why he expressed it. And he was just a hard dog – probably someone who would handle something like that. Ultimately, it is simply an individual view,” said the McLaren boss.
Ralf Schumacher: Lando will not learn that
However, Jones is not the only one who has this view. Ex-pilot Ralf Schumacher is also not so impressed by Norris this season and sees another big weakness of the British: “He lacks the little multiplication table of the overtaking.”
In the past few months he has repeatedly stuck against Max Verstappen, and was brought back into an unfavorable position in Miami.
“There are no excuses for something like that,” Schumacher told Sky. “There are simply drivers who have a mega eye for it. This is Max, for example [Verstappen]that is actually, for example, Piatri or [Oliver] Bearman. And Lando just lacks it, “he criticizes,” and he won’t learn that either. “
Is there a crash thanks to Norris’ over -zeal at some point?
“That means it is only about dominance for him,” believes the German. Norris has to drive away at the front and must not make mistakes. But if he is behind, it will be difficult for him. “And so he won’t be world champion,” is Schumacher’s judgment.
He believes Piatri already feels superior to the team, while Norris has to come up with something as soon as possible so as not to have to play the second violin at some point in the World Cup. “That means he will now increase his risk and I think he is also sorry and fed up with being described by everyone.”
“I think he now wants to show more hardness,” says Schumacher, who does not see the feeling of Piatri when I was Briton, who can drive hard without the collision of the two. “I could imagine that Lando will sometimes misjudge the situation. And then, I think, it will come to contact.”