The vital skill Piastri must improve to beat Norris at McLaren

McLaren boasts one of the strongest driver line-ups on the grid in 2025, with both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri viewed as genuine drivers’ championship contenders.

In the former, it has a now-proven grand prix winner who was on the cusp of launching a title charge against Max Verstappen last term.

And the latter is perhaps the most highly-regarded and promising young driver in the F1 paddock, who – entering his third season in the series – is expected to continue to progress well in the season to come.

After the Australian started applying pressure on Norris in 2024, many believe him to be McLaren’s star driver of the future.

However, whilst he continued to flourish over the course of the year, piecing together a more consistent campaign with improved tyre management and race craft than his debut season, there was still a significant delta between the pair.

In scoring 292 points, Piastri found himself 82 shy of his team-mate’s 374. Norris also claimed four grand prix victories to the 23-year-old’s two.

And for Piastri to close the gap to the Briton, let alone overhaul the more accomplished and experienced McLaren driver, he must up his game in one critical area: qualifying.

Paramount area of improvement

In grand prix qualifying, Piastri found himself out-performed by Norris on 20 occasions to four.

Further still, the 25-year-old racked eight pole positions to the former F2 and FIA F3 champion’s none. 

Although he maintains the gap has been “very small” between them, Piastri does concede that too often he has been on the losing end of their grid-setting head to head.

The Australian conceded to not being “particularly happy” with his one-lap form over the year, even if the delta between them was “very tight” in reality.

Article continues underneath table.

Close by critical deficit

The above table supports Piastri’s claims by showing that on 10 occasions the pair qualified next to each other on the grid.

Sixteen times across the year there were only two places between them, and the Australian set a lap time good enough for the front row at six grand prix.

Nonetheless, he will continue to struggle to match Norris throughout a campaign if the qualifying deficit to his team-mate remains.

If Piastri can address the shortfall, and get their head-to-head somewhere close to equal, he will likely drastically reduce points gaps, which stood at over 24% below Norris in 2024.