Lando Norris wants to win Formula One title without Oscar Piastri misfortune

MONZA – Lando Norris believes that he can still win the Formula One title, despite his Dutch Grand Prix going up in smoke last weekend, and would not wish similar misfortune on championship-leading McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

He is now 34 points behind the Australian with nine rounds, including the Sept 7 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, remaining. Piastri has seven wins to Norris’ five for the season and won at Zandvoort on Aug 31 after Norris stopped with a mechanical problem while in second place.

“I can still win the championship without anything happening (to Piastri),” the Briton, 25, told reporters at Monza on Sept 4. “That’s the way I wish to do it.

“It would certainly make my life easier if there were just some more drivers in between, every now and then. The thing is, we’re so dominant as a team and that almost makes my life harder.”

McLaren have finished one-two in seven of the 15 races so far and have won the last five in a row. Piastri, 24, is the only driver to have scored points in every race.

There are a total of 249 points remaining to be won, with 25 for a race win and a maximum 24 from the three Saturday sprint races that each offer eight points to the winner.

Norris, Piastri’s only real rival, added that it was still a case of “may the best man win” and he would respect the eventual outcome.

While admitting frustration at what happened at Zandvoort, he took comfort in the knowledge that it had nothing to do with how he drove.

“It’s pretty easy to just go ‘Well, that’s life, you know, what can I do’,” he said.

“If I lose the championship by those points, then I just have to keep my chin up, my head up high and try and do it again next year. I can’t dwell on those moments too much.

“It’s not anyone’s direct fault. Even if it was, I just have to take it on the chin and move on.”

Looking ahead, Norris said last weekend that he would be full-on in his response to the situation, but he recognised that his options were limited and he had been operating already at a very high level.

“I’ve got to be a bit more on it and sharp with various things here and there,” he said.

“I can’t do a lot more because I feel like I’m doing already everything I can. It’s not like this was a trigger and now I can suddenly start doing more.”

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton described his five-place grid penalty for Ferrari’s home Italian Grand Prix as “pretty hardcore” and said he was shocked to find out about it only after returning home from last week’s race.

The seven-time world champion, 40, was caught speeding while warning flags were waved as he headed to the starting grid at Zandvoort but the drop, plus two penalty points, was decided only after he crashed out of the race.

“I don’t know how the other drivers felt about the decisions from the last race, but when I landed back home and saw I got this penalty, I was really shocked,” he said.

“But I learnt from it and there’s no point whinging about it. I’ll move forward. It’s going to be challenging this weekend, because qualifying is already so close between us all... getting in the top five is very, very tough.”

The race at Monza will be Hamilton’s first in Ferrari red at the team’s spiritual home where teammate Charles Leclerc won in 2024.

Overtaking is difficult at the fastest track on the calendar, putting a premium on grid position.

Hamilton, the most successful driver in the sport’s history, has yet to stand on the podium in 15 starts with Ferrari, who have yet to win this season other than a sprint race in China in March when Hamilton led from start to finish. REUTERS