Formula One icon Martin Brundle believes Lando Norris would have been “mortally wounded” by his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri getting a race win before him.
After a dire start to the season, McLaren brought regular updates to their car and rapidly improved as the year went on to finish fourth in the constructors’ standings.
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Norris finished sixth in the drivers’ championship and with seven podiums, while Piastri was ninth overall with two podium finishes and a victory in the sprint race in Qatar.
The 22-year-old Aussie was this week named rookie of the year at the FIA’s end of season awards in recognition of his debut F1 campaign that impressed many with his race craft and speed in qualifying over one lap.
Norris has now had five seasons in F1 and while the 24-year-old has shown excellent consistency, he will be desperate to get the monkey off his back and claim a maiden grand prix win next season.
The Brit was on his way to a maiden win in Russia in 2021 before rain started falling and he chose to stay out on track instead of changing tyres, cruelling his hopes of victory.
Norris has now tied Nick Heidfield for the most podium finishes (13) without a race win and could hold that record outright if Max Verstappen’s dominance continues next year.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ end-of-season review, Brundle praised Norris for an excellent second half of the season but pointed out the awkward reality that his younger teammate won a race before him.
“Oscar Piastri has really sharpened Lando Norris up,” Brundle declared.
“Now he has to get on with it a little bit because Piastri has turned up, as a rookie, delivering the high speeds through the really challenging corners, delivering some amazing results.
“Made some rookie errors as well, but I think that’s really driven both drivers on and probably just what Lando needed because I think in the second half of the season, Lando Norris has been outstanding.”
“Let’s remember that Oscar Piastri won the sprint race in Qatar in great style with Max (Verstappen) trying to catch him,” Brundle added.
“Their (McLaren’s) new windtunnel I don’t think will really pay a lot of dividends until 2025, but if they put everything else together well … and remember even a couple of years back there was a sequence of three races were Lando could have won all three of them.
“So it’s within touching distance and he must be mortally wounded that actually it was Piastri who saw the chequered flag first.”
Norris is contracted with McLaren until the end of 2025 and Sky F1 pundit Naomi Schiff believes he will stay with the papaya team despite links to Red Bull.
“He is special,” said Schiff of Norris.
“He has been waiting very long already to get to this point and you’ve got to say that now they are as close as they’ve ever been, at least in the time that Lando has been with the team, to potentially having those wins.
“He maintains the fact that he will become world champion with this team. He seems fully committed to them. He wants to win his first race with them and he believes it’s going to happen next season.
“Everything shows that that looks like it could be possible. That’s all going to depend on how far down the road Red Bull is going to be.
“But I have some faith that the teams are reining them in and hopefully we will see something papaya on the top step next year.”