Former team boss Günther Steiner has a clear idea of which of the two McLaren drivers has the best chance of winning the driver’s title this year. The Italian observed in Belgium how Oscar Piastri was braver than teammate Lando Norris, and believes that the Brit generally makes ‘too many small mistakes’. ‘That’s why I say Oscar is going to win the championship,’ says Steiner.
After four consecutive world titles for Max Verstappen, it increasingly seems that the 2025 driver’s title will be heading to the McLaren headquarters in Woking. Championship leader Oscar Piastri is already 81 World Championship points ahead of third-place Max Verstappen, while the gap between second-place Lando Norris and the four-time world champion is 65 points. The battle between the two McLaren drivers is far from over, with a difference of just sixteen points.
The Small Mistakes of Norris
Former team boss Günther Steiner already knows which of the two McLaren drivers he would bet on. “We see time and time again how Lando makes too many small mistakes,” the Italian explains in the Red Flags podcast. “That’s why I say Oscar is going to win the championship, because that (Norris’s small mistakes) is the crucial difference between the two.”
According to the former Haas team boss, Norris is not lacking in pure speed. “Lando is just as fast as Oscar when everything goes well,” Steiner continues. “But he makes those small mistakes. They come out of nowhere, and you never know exactly when they will come.” The South Tyrolean also noticed how Piastri was ‘braver’ during the last Grand Prix in Belgium. The Australian overtook polesitter Norris in the first race round and led the entire GP thereafter. “You could see that Oscar simply took a bigger risk, he was braver,” says Steiner. “And then, of course, he had the slipstream.”
