Lando Norris Unlikely to Have Problem With Oscar Piastri Leveling His Performances Until It Makes McLaren to Shift Their Faith

Sabyasachi Biswas | 19/10/2023
Lando Norris Unlikely to Have Problem With Oscar Piastri Leveling His Performances Until It Makes McLaren to Shift Their Faith

Even though Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri enjoy similar advantages at McLaren, the British driver is the de facto number one at the Woking-based team. However, things look to change as Piastri began to ask questions off late. Thus, questions were raised if this would mean that the Papayas would see a similar situation to what happened between Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull. On this, Ben Anderson in the recent Race F1 podcast episode revealed that things are unlikely to turn that way until McLaren decides to intervene.

The British team could call themselves lucky to have two drivers in the team who can pull off stunning performances week-in, week-out. Something Red Bull and Aston Martin failed to show throughout the season so far.

Therefore, the driver duo pulled McLaren from a very lowly place in the Constructors’ championship and are on their way to take Aston Martin’s position in the standings. With that, the team can also see intra-team tussles in the future and things can change for Norris.

Norris unlikely to have problems with Piastri until McLaren steps in

Ben Anderson, a renowned F1 expert has recently opened up on the upcoming situation with Norris and Piastri at McLaren. He revealed that Zak Brown’s team might see a repeat of Verstappen and Ricciardo in the future.

However, this is expected to take place once the team decides to push the rookie over the veteran, just like Red Bull did a few years back. Talking about this, Anderson said as per The Race, “I don’t think it becomes a major issue until or unless Norris feels like McLaren is gravitating around Piastri.”

Following this, he added, “If McLaren decides that suddenly Piastri has Max Verstappen levels of potential like he’s a guy who’s going to take on Max or eclipse Max, then it becomes tricky for Norris.” Nevertheless, the 23-year-old driver would expect to remind the number one driver on the team.

Norris expected to remain the priority at McLaren

Lando Norris has been faithful to McLaren for a long time. Ever since his debut in 2019, the British driver has been a top talent who shone bright with his performances.

Given how talented the young Briton is, rivals tried to lure him out of Woking. However, he decided to stick to the team, even in their bad days. That too when his mate Carlos Sainz left for Ferrari.

With Piastri having no objection to being the second preference, McLaren can certainly place Norris a place above as the 23-year-old is not underperforming in any way.

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Daniel Ricciardo Lando Norris Max Verstappen Oscar Piastri Zak Brown

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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