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The dynamics between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at McLaren have been quite intriguing. Last season, after the F1 Qatar GP sprint, Lando cut a disappointed and almost distraught picture as he knew McLaren had a car that was capable of doing something special.
This became more evident when Lando Norris saw Oscar Piastri win the sprint. All this time, Norris, who made a mistake in qualifying, could only put together a salvage job. Oscar Piastri's addition to McLaren last season was a breath of fresh air. The driver replaced Aussie counterpart Daniel Ricciardo and made an immediate impact.
After mid-season, it became clear that Oscar Piastri could hang with Lando Norris over a lap. It was the race pace that was still not entirely up to the mark but overall Oscar was starting to be competitive against Lando in just his rookie season.
The fact that Lando Norris was rated as one of the best drivers in F1 at the time and Oscar Piastri could come to the team in his very first season and be competitive was a big surprise.
For the 2024 F1 season, the expectations from Oscar Piastri were that of further improvements. He was expected to be more competitive against Lando Norris and challenge him even more. However, looking at the 2024 F1 season championship standings, that has not happened so far. After 6 races into the season, we have Lando Norris at 83 points compared to Oscar Piastri at 41 points.
In a season that was supposed to be the next stepping stone in his development, has Oscar Piastri been exposed by Lando Norris? Let's take a look.
How do Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri stack up against each other?
While the 42-point gap between the two drivers is a bit deceiving because Oscar's race was compromised in Miami, it's hard to see how many events there have been where he's been the faster driver.
The only event that comes to mind is the race in Saudi Arabia, where Norris was compromised and forced to go with an alternative strategy. Other than that race, it's hard to see even a single race where we can say that Oscar has been definitely quicker than Lando.
Oscar was having a strong race in Miami, but looking at the lap times Lando had pulled in his first stint after Piastri had pitted, the Australian would have struggled to keep his teammate behind.
The second half of the last season featured Oscar Piastri being more or less neck and neck with Lando Norris over a lap. The gap was eventually in the longer stints where tire management and other such factors kicked in.
This season, however, except for a couple of sessions, Lando Norris has even upped his game in qualifying as well. Unlike what was expected from Oscar where he'll keep the qualifying strength and gain over the longer stints, that hasn't happened.
Is Oscar Piastri getting exposed?
Last season, at the end of the year there was a perception that slowly but steadily Oscar Piastri would start becoming more and more competitive against his teammate. Not only that, many expected him to start beating Lando Norris regularly in 2024.
While neither has happened, is it because Oscar has already hit the zenith of what he's capable of? Is this a case of a driver who had very impressive and fast adaptability but struggled to tick the other boxes because the growth curve has plateaued?
It's hard to jump to conclusions but there are quite a few who have put the brakes on the Piastri hype train. The way the start of the season has been, Oscar has been forced to take the role of the second driver. That was one of the reasons why the Australian couldn't get his hands on all the upgrades at Miami.
Could the deficit be down to inexperience?
One argument that could be made here is that Oscar is still not as experienced as Lando Norris. Even for the more experienced McLaren driver, it took him a couple of years before he reached a very high level of performance.
For Oscar Piastri as well, he needs a decent amount of time behind the wheel to truly reach the level he's capable of.
In some respect, Oscar overperformed last season when he made his debut. When it comes to 2024, maybe we do need to give him another season before we truly realize what he's capable of.
Has Lando Norris exposed him?
There are two ways of looking at this. On one side, has Lando exposed the fact that Oscar still needs time to get used to the sport? Yes, it seems that he has. On that metric, it can be argued that the level of performance expected of Oscar was perhaps a bit too much.
On the other side, has Lando exposed Oscar as a driver who potentially can never be a title contender? The answer to that question is no. We'll need a bigger sample space before we pass the verdict on Oscar Piastri's ceiling.
