Could Oscar Piastri do to Lando Norris at McLaren what Max Verstappen did to Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull?

There is an eerie resemblance between the Oscar Piastri-Lando Norris dynamics and what happened between Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo half a decade ago.

Piastri wiggled his way through an Alpine contract last season to find himself alongside one of the best drivers on the grid - Norris. But there weren't too many expectations from Piastri in his rookie season.

The young Australian was expected to just show incremental improvements as the year progressed. If he could do that, his first season was going to be considered a success. Well, Oscar Piastri has done that. He's shown incremental improvements with every passing round which has led to him beating his teammate Lando Norris to his first pole position and win in F1.

Even though it was a win in the sprint, it still counts and it has started to show an eerie similarity to a movie that we've already seen play out in front of us a few years back.

That story happened between Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. Could we see history repeating itself? Could we see Oscar Piastri do to Lando Norris at McLaren what Max Verstappen did to Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull? Let's take a look.

What happened between Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo?

When Max Verstappen joined Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo was the lead driver. Ricciardo moved to the senior team from Torro Rosso in 2014. In his very first season, he'd shown an ability to be one of the best drivers on the grid with three wins to his name. By the time we reached 2016, the Australian was the lead driver of the team.

Verstappen joining Red Bull in 2016 did have an immediate impact as he won his very first race with the team. From that point onwards the Dutchman slowly but steadily took over the Red Bull team and by mid 2018 F1 season, he was the lead driver.

All of this, however, didn't happen overnight as Verstappen took a couple of years to reach his potential and while there were races where he could blast Daniel Ricciardo out of the order, the consistency and relentlessness only came in 2018.

By 2018, it became clear that Verstappen was the lead driver at Red Bull, and as a result, Ricciardo saw the writing on the wall and decided to experiment with a move with Renault at the time.

When we're talking about Oscar Piastri doing to Lando Norris what Max Verstappen did to Daniel Ricciardo, this is precisely what we're talking about.

Could history repeat itself at McLaren? Or we could see a completely different scenario where both drivers continue to be very competitive against each other and neither can establish the superiority over the other driver. Let's take a look.

Could the same happen between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri?

Why it could

Oscar Piastri's impressive growth curve

Keen observers have seen something very interesting about Oscar Piastri over the years and that is what truly makes him remarkable. It has been his ability to step up and make significant improvements while jumping from one category to another.

Until Formula 3, Piastri was kept on his toes by fellow F1 rookie Logan Sargeant. If it wasn't for the crash in the very last race of the season, Piastri would have lost as well. As soon as he stepped up to F2, he made significant improvements. He dominated the F2 championship and left fellow competitors like Theo Pourchaire in the lurch.

Coming to F1 again you can see the massive difference between Oscar Piastri and his former adversary Logan Sargeant who is struggling to stay in the sport. If the growth continues, it won't come as a surprise if he emulates what Max Verstappen did to Daniel Ricciardo.

Oscar Piastri tends to be more composed

One of the bigger intangibles for any driver in the hustle and bustle of F1 is the ability to stay composed and get on with the job. Even though the sample space is a bit smaller, Piastri tends to be doing a very impressive job of keeping his cool in tense situations. Some of the more significant examples came recently in the race in Qatar.

The driver was under pressure from Max Verstappen in the sprint and he fended off the challenge impressively. Oscar Piastri was under intense pressure from Lando Norris in the main race but he was able to hold him off as well. This is something that he might have as an edge over Norris as well who tends to be more emotional in such circumstances.

His learning curve is not complete yet and he's matching Lando Norris already

One of the more remarkable things about Oscar Piastri is that he's still in his first season. The race in Qatar was still just his 17th career race and in just that one he outclassed one of the best drivers on the grid. What's more remarkable in all of this is the fact that the driver is nowhere close to being fully acclimatized with the sport.

There's still a lot more to come from Oscar and that is something that should be alarming for Lando Norris. Especially since it's crystal clear that there is a major gulf in race pace while the Australian has closed the gap in qualifying already.

Why it won't

Unlike Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, the age gap is smaller in this case

One of the major things that everyone forgets about Lando Norris is that he made his debut in F1 as a teenager. What's an even bigger surprise is that Norris is only a year older than Oscar Piastri and the two are almost the same age as each other. In terms of racing experience as well, Norris and Piastri are somewhat commensurate although since the former has been in F1 for longer, he tends to hold the edge.

When you compare it with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen's dynamics, you see the major difference between the two. The former had years of experience under him and was eight years older than Verstappen when the two got together. The two drivers were in the different stages of their careers and it showed in the way they went about racing.

That was also one of the reasons why the Dutchman could grow so much and outperform Ricciardo because for him the growth curve was always going to be massive.

With such a thing not there between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, there could be a possibility that we do not see one driver taking over within the team.

Lando Norris is still growing as a driver

One thing we also forget is Lando Norris is still not the finished product that he aspires to be. He's not been in too many battles for pole positions, he has fought for a win just once in his career and that was also a rarity. There are still a lot of things that Lando still has to learn.

While Oscar Piastri will have his growth curve without a doubt, so would Norris, and maybe because of that we never see a point where the former starts dominating his teammate like Max Verstappen did with Daniel Ricciardo.

There's still a major gulf between the two drivers

Finally, something that seems glaringly obvious here is that the gap between the two drivers is still quite big at the moment. Yes, Oscar Piastri got the jump in qualifying in both races and he finished ahead as well. However, what we should not discount is the speed with which Lando Norris caught his teammate in Qatar. Or the close to 20-second gap between the two drivers in Japan.

There's still a major gulf in performance between the two drivers and it would be a bit premature to just assume that Oscar Piastri will fill this gap and emulate what Max Verstappen did to Daniel Ricciardo.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, what would happen and what wouldn't is hard to predict. What can however be said with surety is that this is going to be a very intriguing battle. Two young hungry drivers not willing to give an inch tend to result in a very impressive battle in F1.

We should see that at McLaren although it's hard to see which way the balance tilts in the future.