Lando Norris has been advised on how to make his McLaren team-mate and Formula 1 title rival Oscar Piastri “crack” by a former driver.
Norris missed out on a golden opportunity to cut Piastri’s 31-point title lead at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, after the Australian crashed out on the opening lap.
The Brit, thwarted by a poor grid position and a comparatively uncompetitive MCL39 package in Baku, finished a modest seventh, bringing the gap down to just 25 points.
Norris defended his performance and result, saying he “did the best I could” in both qualifying and the race, denying it was a “missed opportunity”.
After a difficult early season, in which he lost ground to Piastri and regained much of the deficit in the summer months, Norris had showed considerable improvement.
Norris has been open about his psychological struggles across the early races, but recently has shown improvement in his mental strength.
And Piastri’s countryman and former F1 driver David Brabham believes that focusing on himself is the key to putting the title-leader under more pressure.
“I’m not sure about [Norris] using it [mindgames] against [Piastri], because he can’t control it,” Brabham told RacingNews365.
“But it was a big shock for a lot of people to see Oscar making mistakes like that, and I would imagine it will give Lando hope that there is pressure building and that he’s cracked it.
“Oscar has made mistakes now, it could be something which was needed, so now he’s adjusted, refocused and is going to be stronger for the rest of the season.
“Lando has really just got to focus on himself and get the most out of it because that’s the only way he is going to be able to beat Oscar.
“Then, if he is doing a really good job, that puts more pressure on Oscar, and we saw [in Azerbaijan] that he can crack, so it is interesting.”
READ MORE – Ex-F1 driver takes brutal swipe at McLaren’s strategy and drivers after Baku woe
Discussion about this post