In a recent short video clip shared on YouTube, sourced from Viaplay Sport Nederland’s interview, McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were asked who would be the first among them to become a world champion and when they expect that to happen. And while Norris was a bit modest in his approach, Piastri, on the other hand, made a bold prediction for his first title.
Considering that Norris is already in a championship battle with Max Verstappen this season, his initial response, “Oh Sh*t,” made a lot of sense as he wouldn’t want to talk about the subject. However, with McLaren turning into a proper championship contender, it shouldn’t be too hard to predict that either of them could become a world champion as soon as next year if Norris were to miss out in 2024.
However, Piastri responded with a question and attempted to change the subject. The Aussie asked, “World Champion of what”, to which he obviously knew the answer.
Norris then said, “I mean, we can have the same answer here,” and Piastri agreed. They both wrote, “Me“. Since both McLaren drivers were tasked of guessing the same answers during these round of questions, Piastri said that the interviewer asked them a trick question.
When followed up with which year they expect it to happen, Piastri wrote, “2025”. On the other hand, Norris wrote, “N/A “. The host interpreted the Briton’s answer as him being unavailable for the championship next year. This could perhaps be because he would hope to win his maiden title this year itself.
McLaren finally agrees to support Norris
While Piastri is mathematically still in with an outside chance of winning the championship, it has been clear for some time now that Norris is the one more likely who can actually snatch the title from Max Verstappen. However, up until the Italian Grand Prix, McLaren refused to introduce team orders to help Norris.
But that changed when Piastri confirmed on the Media Day ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that the team had asked him to help Norris as much as he could in catching Verstappen. Although reluctant to agree to the role of a support driver, Piastri eventually gave in to the team’s demands but made it clear that he wouldn’t just roll over every single time just to let Norris finish ahead of him.
What’s also interesting is that he made sure to comment about getting a payback from his teammate if and when he has a better position in the championship in the future. However, despite Piastri agreeing to help Norris out, the Briton is still 62 points behind Verstappen, a gap that has never been overcome with eight races remaining in a season.
