‘Internally decided': Big call on Piastri at McLaren as Ricciardo record looms

News.com.au

24-06-2025

Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher believes an internal decision has been made at McLaren to back Oscar Piastri for the drivers championship.
After 10 races this season, Piastri has a 22-point lead in the standings over teammate Lando Norris, with Max Verstappen 43 points behind the Australian.
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McLaren have said they will let their two drivers race each other, and there are still 14 races remaining this year and plenty of opportunities for Norris to mount a comeback and add to his two victories this season.
But Piastri is showing a champion mentality every race weekend and according to Schumacher, it's enough for McLaren to back Piastri as their main man this year.
The teammates came together in wheel to wheel action for the first time at the Canadian Grand Prix, with Norris crashing out after going for a gap along the pit straight that wasn't there.
'I believe that it is now internally decided that Piastri is the man the team will focus on in terms of the World Championship,' the six-time race winner told Sky Deutschland.
'Lando shows too many weaknesses and makes too many mistakes, including his senseless driving into the back of Oscar in Canada.'
'He has apologised and that shows what a great person he is. But it's no use, because great people rarely win titles.'
He went on to say: 'This is the low point now because he has lost his nerve a bit.
'You have to give him one thing, he was once again faster than Piastri. He didn't manage to do it in qualifying, but in the race he closed the gap and was simply better. He still has the speed, especially in the race.
Seven-time F1 race winner Juan Pablo Montoya agrees that Piastri has quietly assumed top dog status at McLaren.
Speaking to Casino Hawks, Montoya said: 'I think he (Norris) is very good at winning. I think he's very good at dominating. But chasing and being in uncomfortable situations, it seems like he never learned to deal with them because he never experienced enough of them.
'So now he's finding himself in difficult situations that maybe he doesn't have enough experience to deal with. That's the only explanation for me.
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'Losing points on Sunday to Oscar wasn't the end of the world. Having an opportunity to pass Oscar was good, but you need to put yourself in situations where you're going to come out ahead. You never want to go into a fight without an exit strategy.'
Piastri has already earned the nickname 'Ice Boy' and comparisons to 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who was known as the 'Ice Man' for his cool demeanour on and off track.
Piastri has been as unflustered as they come so far in his career, but the pressure may start to ramp up in the second half of the year as a maiden championship comes within reach.
'Oscar has that calmness,' Montoya said.
'But if it becomes a thing where it's all about the speed and Lando can put it together, I think Lando can still come out on top. There are still enough races that if Lando gets in a streak and wins four or five races in a row, everything is flipped.
'If you can go and beat Oscar two or three weekends in a row, all of a sudden, Oscar is the one under pressure.
'Oscar hasn't been in a bad situation. At the start of the season, Oscar was not the favourite, and Oscar was not the guy everybody was looking at.
'And Oscar is not the English guy that all the media are paying attention to. He's like the underdog — even in the team, he was like the underdog, so now everybody is looking at Oscar today like he's maybe the man.
'How is he going to manage that? He's never been in that situation. What is he going to do about it? How is he going to cope?
'People are going to start paying attention to him and scrutinising his mistakes. Maybe this will take some pressure off Lando, and it might flip Lando around and give Lando amazing results.'
Piastri is aiming to become just the third Aussie to win a F1 drivers championship and the first since Alan Jones back in 1980.
Jones has backed Piastri to break the 45-year drought, saying earlier this year he believes Norris is 'mentally weak'.
Piastri, 24, caught up with Daniel Ricciardo, Aussie Olympic snowboarder Scotty James and Mercedes driver George Russell for a game of padel in Monaco.
In just his third F1 season, Piastri has seven race wins and can equal Ricciardo's career haul of eight victories if he salutes this weekend in Austria, which is a home race for Red Bull.
The F1 season continues at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend, with the main race on Sunday at 11pm AEST.