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Oscar Piastri is “not yet” a match for his teammate Lando Norris, but will get “better and better and better”, according to McLaren’s CEO.
Oscar Piastri leads Charles Leclerc on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at Miami International Autodrome. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)The Miami Grand Prix saw Lando Norris finally achieve his long-awaited maiden win in Formula One. The young Brit has raced in F1 since 2019, taking home 15 podiums but now he is a Grand Prix winner.
Norris’ victory has sparked some comparison between him and his teammate, Oscar Piastri. The Australian driver won the Sprint in Qatar last year, causing questions to arise about when Norris would win his first race. Currently, there is a 42-point gap between the two McLaren drivers in the Drivers’ Championship; Norris is on 83 points in P4 whilst Piastri is in P6 on 41 points.
Following Norris’ win in Miami, Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren, has spoken about his drivers’ performance. Brown highlighted how he thinks Piastri needs to improve to be able to match Norris on a regular basis.
The boss’ thoughts
Featuring on the Beyond the Grid Podcast, Brown expressed his thoughts, touching on Piastri’s inexperience. The McLaren CEO said:
“So if I look at Lando’s [Norris] first year and a half, Oscar [Piastri] has kind of matched that. So where Lando’s really strong, he rarely makes a mistake, his race management is awesome.
Pssst… that’s us. ?☝️#MiamiGP ?? pic.twitter.com/8qNZ9399DK
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) May 7, 2024
“And what you can see in Oscar, is he can do everything Lando can, and then sometimes he doesn’t. But that’s more, I think, inexperience – the lack of consistency, and these tyres are pretty hard to manage.
“So I think he’s just going to get better and better and better.”
Brown continued, speaking about Piastri’s potential. Of course, the young McLaren driver was originally an Alpine Junior Driver, but after Fernando Alonso announced he was moving to Aston Martin for 2023, Piastri made the switch to McLaren following drama on social media.
With McLaren he proved he deserved his place in Formula 1, taking a podium and a Sprint race win in his rookie year. Talking about Piastri’s potential on the podcast, Brown confirmed he feels Piastri is a match for Norris. He said:
“I think Lando is as good as anyone in Formula 1. And I think Oscar is the match for Lando.
“He’s not yet – what we see now is he can be, but he has some inconsistencies. Tyre management, but these things just come with experience.
“And that’s why I’m so excited about our driver line-up. I think we’ve got two of the best drivers in Formula 1.”
The Australian McLaren driver clearly has a bright future ahead of him. With some more experience and time, he will surely be capable to operate at a high level and be more consistent, maybe even matching or surpassing his current teammate.
Headline image: GettyImages