By Ben Langley
Many were tipping Lando Norris to be the driver to win his maiden World Championship this season after his strong finish in 2024. However, Oscar Piastri has shown the makings of a champion consistently this season. Although the performance between the two McLaren drivers has been too close to call, Piastri’s ice-cold mentality has swung the momentum in his favour. The Aussie leads the championship by 31 points heading into Azerbaijan, and so this begs the question, is Piastri the world champion to be?
The vast majority of Piastri’s lead stems from Norris’ unfortunate engine failure in Zandvoort, but Piastri has still been the driver in control since he took the championship lead in Saudi Arabia. He started firmly on the back foot in his home race in Melbourne. The changing conditions disrupted the McLaren order at the front. Both Norris and Piastri ran off the track but as Norris gathered the car back on track, Piastri spun into the grass in unlucky circumstances. The Aussie finished 9th while Norris took victory.
Piastri showcased his championship credentials in the following races. He won three of the next four races and showed no chink in his armour compared to Norris who suffered several mistakes in key moments. Despite Piastri’s large points deficit to Norris after the opening round, he took the championship lead only four rounds later. From there, he has never looked back. The Aussie took further victories in Miami, Spain, Belgium and Netherlands to cement himself as the title favourite. But can he be caught?
Piastri’s 31-point lead is difficult for his sole contender, Norris, to catch. With McLaren’s dominance making it difficult for others to split the drivers, this makes Norris’ task the trickier. If one driver is to have a say in the title fight, it may well be Max Verstappen. His sublime victory in Monza last time out shows that when his Red Bull is competitive he can challenge the papaya team. Norris would need multiple victories between now and the season end, whilst having Verstappen finishing between himself and Piastri to take bigger chunks out of the Aussie’s lead. However, it is hard to support this comeback given the inconsistency of Red Bull’s car performance.
The championship battle isn’t over yet, but it would be bold to think that Piastri won’t clinch his first ever championship when the chequered flag falls at the season’s end.
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