Lando Norris's perfect Austria weekend may change his F1 title narrative, but he's not assuming so

New York Times

19 hours ago

SPIELBERG, Austria — The narrative surrounding Lando Norris's bid for a maiden Formula One world championship in 2025 had been sliding one way.
While Oscar Piastri, cool and calm, had barely missed a beat so far this season en route to five wins in the first nine races, even in the moments when Norris was faster, he was making too many mistakes.
Advertisement
Nailing qualifying, something that once came so easily to him, had a real challenge – in part due to a braking struggle with the 2025 McLaren. Sunday fightbacks then proved too little, too late. His victory from pole in Monaco was supposed to be the turning point that ignited his title charge, only for his mistake last time out in Canada, breaking the first rule of racing by making contact with his teammate, undid all that good work.
But as Austria featured the season's first true wheel-to-wheel fight between the two McLaren drivers — now surely in a two-horse race for this year's championship with Max Verstappen 61 points off the lead — it was Norris who came away the victor.
Sunday felt like Norris's race to lose before it even started. After sitting out FP1 for McLaren young driver Alex Dunne, he topped FP2, FP3, and all three stages of qualifying en route to scoring pole by half a second.
The biggest pole margin of the season so far on the year's shortest lap. It was a lifetime in F1 terms.
But after the lights went out on Sunday, Piastri made clear this would be a win Norris would have to work for. Charles Leclerc being squeezed by Norris off the line let Piastri pass at Turn 1, the Ferrari driver focused on trying to attack Norris. The McLarens then set off into the distance, stealing a march at a blistering early pace.
It was such a pace that Norris feared their two-stop strategy plan could be jeopardized, reaching the target laps requiring careful tire management. He had to push flat out to keep Piastri, who was glued to his gearbox right through the opening stint, at bay.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner commented post-race how Piastri 'was basically making love to his exhaust pipe for lap after lap after lap, and the tires are not dying.' Too graphic, perhaps, but a backhanded compliment to McLaren's advantage in this critical area for car race pace.
Advertisement
At no point did McLaren seek to intervene in the fight, as it had done back in Australia — here sticking to its principles by giving Norris and Piastri the freedom to fight as they traded the lead back and forth in the space of two corners on Lap 11 of 70, Norris ultimately staying ahead.
'We both knew what to expect from each other,' Norris said. 'We both want to race hard and race fair. It goes both ways.' A brief moment of panic for Norris came when he grazed the gravel at the final corner a few laps later, but Piastri didn't go for a lunge into Turn 1. This gave Norris time to then prepare to defend the inside at the top of the hill.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said post-race he was proud of how his drivers had conducted themselves on the track, the only really close moment coming when Piastri tried to attack Norris at Turn 4 shortly before the first pit stop, when he locked up and narrowly missed the sister McLaren's rear.
The pit wall informed Piastri after his tire change that the move had been 'too marginal' — an assessment he agreed was fair. 'Missing the back of your teammate by not a lot is certainly pushing the boundaries,' Piastri admitted. 'Even if I hadn't been told anything, I didn't think it was a wise decision to try that one again.' He immediately apologized on his radio after crossing the finish line much later.
Any tension Stella and co. may have felt was eased by Piastri's call not to follow Norris's strategy, preferring to stay out a few laps later in the first stint to get fresher tires with which to attack in the second. But even with traffic starting to come into play, he couldn't make the major inroads he needed to get close to Norris, leaving him four seconds adrift for the final stint. A bit of breathing room.
But this time, as Norris caught and passed slower cars first, Piastri was able to close the gap to under two seconds entering the final 10 laps. A huge amount of pressure on the shoulders of the Briton, not eased when he was informed he'd picked some minor front wing damage. A mistake would not only cost him the win, but it would give credence to the theory he couldn't keep his cool in the moments that really mattered.
Norris knew he needed every single bit of pace he could muster in this moment. It made his race engineer, Will Joseph, an important source of help. Norris kept asking which corners he was losing time to Piastri. At first it was the higher-speed Turns 6 and 7, then Turn 1 and Turn 3. He asked, got told, and responded. 'Do that every lap, please,' said Joseph after Norris had nailed the early right-handers with three laps to go.
Advertisement
That precise level of communication was part of the improvement Norris has been working to make in recent weeks.
'As much as I like to not have any radio and just do my own thing and concentrate, when you've got some quick guys behind you or ahead of you, there's nothing wrong with asking for a bit of guidance and a bit of help every now and then,' Norris said. He admitted he'd been 'trying to be a bit more accepting of help.'
Upon crossing the line, there was no great outburst of emotion or celebration from Norris, as F1 heard when he won in Monaco. Austria is a track he's always performed well at, and was always going to be a good place for him to rediscover his groove — aided by the suspension update McLaren had introduced in Canada to help his braking feel.
He sounded more Piastri-like responding to Joseph's words of congratulations. Grateful and happy, but calm.
The significance of the result after what happened in Canada cannot be understated. Norris left that weekend on a low, braced for what Stella said would likely be 'tough conversations' about the misjudgment that caused the clash with Piastri. Norris said on Thursday the team had emerged from it stronger, and he'd put Canada out of his mind.
Yet Norris made mention of the incident in the post-race news conference at the Red Bull Ring, saying the team had to 'put Montreal behind us — behind me for sure. It's something that I wished never happened.'
To dominate Austria as he did was the perfect response, as much as he may have claimed there was no point to prove.
'It's fulfilling for me, it gives me good confidence,' Norris said of his third 2025 win. 'I don't need to prove any points or prove anything to anyone, honestly. I like to prove things to myself, I guess, probably more than anything.' So, if nothing else, he'd proven to himself he could unlock every ounce of the McLaren MCL39's pace to dominate a weekend and strike back against Piastri.
Advertisement
But Sunday also offered another shred of comfort to Norris' fans. The Canada clash, while still his misjudgment, did have an extra detail that was unknown until now: Piastri's car had been derating, where the electrical part of the engine briefly stops deploying full power. 'The closing speed was faster than Lando could have anticipated,' Stella said after moving to mention that bit of information.
The pace has always been there for Norris this season. Stella highlighted how he'd won from pole in Monaco, been on for pole in Canada before touching the wall in Q3, and was then fastest in the race. 'The speed is there,' Stella said. 'We just have to polish a few things in execution and results will come, which is what Lando has demonstrated here in Austria.'
With McLaren proving again in Austria that it can let its drivers fight each other while keeping things civil despite nearing the midway point of this very close championship, this true scrap between Norris and Piastri is surely the first of many.
Norris may still trail by 15 points, but he had to bounce back from the Canada disappointment and simply demonstrate what was there all along.
It's a timely boost heading into his home race at Silverstone, where Norris will have his own grandstand and lead the British hopes of victory. But as Monaco-Canada proved, one good weekend alone won't be enough to truly regain momentum in the championship fight. And he knows that.
'Still need more, still want more,' Norris said. 'So we'll keep working.'
(Top image: Kym Illman / Getty Images)