The 2025 Belgian Grand Prix cemented the reality that it’s realistically a two-horse race for the Formula 1 World Championship between the McLaren drivers.
Once the track had dried up, the split strategies between the McLaren duo showcased the approach that has split Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris this season.
While race leader Piastri went for the Medium tyre and a strategy that would require much more consistency and tyre management, Norris avoided the double stack and pitted a lap later for the Hard compound tyre, one that requires less management and could be leaned on.
The idea for Norris was clear: as Piastri would have to manage his tyres to get to the end, he could simply push hard and close the gap and try and win the race that way.
Both strategies reflected each driver’s strengths, but also came to expose a rather costly weakness for Norris in particular in 2025.
Unfortunately for the Briton, a slew of costly mistakes while in pursuit of the Australian would see him lose out, not only on race day, but his championship pursuit, too.
And ultimately, the clash in strategies and the way they were executed perfectly mirrored the two distinct styles between the two McLaren drivers, which may come to define who comes out victorious in F1’s title race.
Metronomic consistency versus raw speed
2025 has been a defining season for both McLaren drivers, now with a car capable of not only taking victories but winning and dominating the World Championship.
For Norris, in his seventh season in F1, the chance to realise his potential and win the ultimate prize, something he’s been tipped for since his debut back in 2019.
The Briton’s raw speed has been clear since he stormed into McLaren, out-performing more experienced team-mates Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo from the get-go.
Meanwhile, Piastri has taken a huge leap in his third season, improving in all areas across one lap speed, race pace and, importantly, tyre management compared to 2024.
Norris might possess the upper hand in raw speed, but Piastri has developed into a metronome when it comes to generating consistent results to maintain the edge.
A key to Piastri’s points lead is his consistency, currently on a 41-race points scoring streak, running back to his debut season in 2023, the third longest streak in F1 history.
Despite the Australian’s improvement in 2025, it is still generally understood that Norris has greater raw speed and the ability to pull out a lap from nowhere more often.
However, his superior underlying pace does come with a flaw, in that he tends to commit a greater number of mistakes when it matters most.
Norris has, on multiple occasions this season, made costly errors, which have culminated in him facing a 16-point deficit to Piastri with 11 rounds now remaining.
Will Norris’ errors come at the ultimate cost?
An error in Q3 in Saudi Arabia meant he would only start 10th, while Piastri started on the front row and then took victory as his team-mate recovered to fourth.
Blunders in Q3 in both China and Bahrain also put the Briton on the back foot, but the most costly one came on F1’s annual trip to Canada last month.
In an attempt to make a late overtake on Piastri, Norris inexplicably went for a gap that didn’t exist, colliding with the rear of his team-mate and retiring on the spot.
Then there was the trio of blunders when in pursuit of Piastri at Spa-Francochamps.
Norris lost a combined three seconds from three separate errors in Belgium, with an off at Pouhon and two lockups at La Source defining moments in a race he would eventually lose by just over three seconds.
Meanwhile, Piastri harnessed his reliable consistency to manage his tyres and manage his lap times to perfection, not putting a foot wrong as Norris started homing in at on average half a second a lap.
With his victory at Spa, Piastri managed to weather the storm of Norris cutting into his championship lead.
As F1 approaches its summer break and heads towards the business end of the season, will Piastri’s consistency or Norris’ raw speed win out in the race for the title?
READ MORE – Where McLaren thinks Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri F1 title battle will be decided
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