Lando Norris has insisted that he won’t care about the championship picture in Formula 1 until closer to the summer amid his current gap to team-mate Oscar Piastri.
Norris entered the campaign touted as the favourite to take a maiden Drivers’ title, and he delivered on that billing when he prevailed in the season opener in Australia.
However, the Briton hasn’t been victorious since then as his persistent troubles with McLaren’s MCL39 over a single lap have compromised his prospects in the races.
That has opened the door for Piastri to notch three consecutive wins as the Australian has capitalised on McLaren’s dominance to ascend to the top of the standings.
But despite the momentum being with Piastri heading into the European season, Norris has denied that he has grown concerned about his team-mate’s 16-point lead.
Asked whether the points gap weighed on his mind, Norris told media including Motorsport Week at Imola: “No. I think I said it before, I probably won’t care about it.
“I don’t care about it, and I won’t think about it probably until more like the summer. Easy for things to change very quickly. No is the answer. That’s it.”
Why Piastri’s run has had no bearing on Norris
Norris, who has been sincere about his struggles in 2025, stressed that he would still be dissatisfied with his performances even without Piastri’s recent standout run.
“I think it makes for a better team, it makes for better teamwork. You’re always going to do a better job as a driver if you have a good team-mate,” he explained.
“Oscar’s done a good job. But at the same time, a lot of it is just focusing on myself.
“Like, Oscar’s doing a good job, yes. But at the end of the day, I don’t feel like I’ve been getting the maximum out of myself.
“So even if I was on my own, I would still not be happy.
“So yeah, it’s good. We push each other every practice, every qualifying, every race. We have a good competition between us.
“We both acknowledge that we want to beat one another. But I think that’s what makes us good team-mates.”
Norris learning to be patient
Norris has elucidated how he is having to learn to bide his time as he awaits both personal improvements and changes to the car to exploit the MCL39’s full potential.
“I don’t always have to have reasons straight away. Sometimes it takes time,” he acknowledged.
“Just like some of the difficulties I’ve had with the car this year, I know that some of the things that we’re trying to work on to improve my feeling take time.
“And I have to be patient with certain things, and I have to be patient with my own improvements at times.
“You always want to go into the next weekend and things to be perfect, but it’s not always the case.
“You look at any other sport, no team just goes from one day to the next day and becomes a loser and then a winner. Sometimes it takes two or three races.
“Whether it’s a football team or a tennis player, a golfer, you never see them going from a shocking weekend to just dominating all of a sudden.
“Especially when you’re at the top, sometimes it takes weeks, months, a different amount of races.
“I don’t always need to have the reasons, but it’s always better to find them out so you can work on them.”
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