{"id":14385,"date":"2025-07-22T21:44:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T21:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/14385\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T21:44:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T21:44:19","slug":"oscar-piastri-has-really-impressed-david-coulthard-with-one-thing-hes-done-to-lead-lando-norris-for-the-2025-f1-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/14385\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has \u2018really impressed\u2019 David Coulthard with one thing he\u2019s done to lead Lando Norris for the 2025 F1 title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oscar Piastri is bidding to become Australia\u2019s first F1 champion since 1980, but he has now seen his McLaren teammate Lando Norris cut his lead down to only eight points.<\/p>\n

The papaya pals will go into this week\u2019s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa facing their tightest margin in the F1 drivers\u2019 championship since Norris won the Monaco Grand Prix<\/a>. His triumph on the streets of the Principality left the Briton a mere three points shy of Piastri<\/a> after eight rounds.<\/p>\n

Piastri will hope to respond at the Belgian GP to Norris\u2019<\/a> threat like how he managed in Spain after winning from pole position in Barcelona. Finishing behind the 25-year-old at Spa could cost the Melbourne native his championship lead as the Belgian GP also boasts an F1 Sprint.<\/p>\n

\"OscarPhoto by Mark Sutton \u2013 Formula 1\/Formula 1 via Getty ImagesOscar Piastri\u2019s development in an F1 title fight has \u2018really impressed\u2019 David Coulthard<\/p>\n

Piastri has led the F1 drivers\u2019 championship<\/a> since he won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix back in April to dethrone Norris after a mere 35 days. But just eight points separate the McLaren<\/a> stars on 234 and 226 ahead of round 13 in Belgium, where neither papaya pal has yet won.<\/p>\n

Former McLaren F1 driver David Coulthard<\/a> has been particularly \u2018impressed\u2019 by how Piastri has developed this year, knowing that the 2025 F1 season<\/a> could be his only chance to win a title. F1\u2019s 2026 engine and chassis regulation changes<\/a> could shake up the order of the field.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri\u2019s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend<\/a><\/p>\n

ROUNDCHAMPIONSHIP LEADERMARGIN AT MCLARENAustralian Grand PrixLando Norris (25 points)23 points over Oscar PiastriChinese Grand PrixLando Norris (44 points)10 points over Oscar PiastriJapanese Grand PrixLando Norris (62 points)13 points over Oscar PiastriBahrain Grand PrixLando Norris (77 points)3 points over Oscar PiastriSaudi Arabian Grand PrixOscar Piastri (99 points)10 points over Lando NorrisMiami Grand PrixOscar Piastri (131 points)16 points over Lando NorrisEmilia Romagna Grand PrixOscar Piastri (146 points)13 points over Lando NorrisMonaco Grand PrixOscar Piastri (161 points)3 points over Lando NorrisSpanish Grand PrixOscar Piastri (186 points)10 points over Lando NorrisCanadian Grand PrixOscar Piastri (198 points)22 points over Lando NorrisAustrian Grand PrixOscar Piastri (216 points)15 points over Lando NorrisBritish Grand PrixOscar Piastri (234 points)8 points over Lando Norris<\/p>\n

Coulthard has told the F1 website<\/a>. \u201cThis could be their only chance to win a world title. We don\u2019t know what 2026 brings [and] we don\u2019t know what the future is, so you\u2019ve got to seize the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m really impressed with how Oscar has stepped up this year. But Lando\u2019s response over the last two races is showing his quality, as well. I think it\u2019s going to be one of those things where both of them deserve it, but only one can get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri has proven he can respond to Lando Norris\u2019 threat whilst improving in 2025<\/p>\n

Piastri can become the first driver to win the FIA F3, F2 and F1 titles since the junior series were rebranded in 2019 and 2017 if he sees through his lead in the 2025 F1 championship. The McLaren racer won the F3 title as a rookie in 2020 and the F2 title as a rookie in 2021.<\/p>\n

He would also become the first driver to win all three titles including from the GP3 and GP2 Series eras, as no GP3 champion has yet won the F1 title. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are the only drivers to win the GP2 title and then go on to win the Formula 1 crown to date.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris\u2019 life outside F1 from parents to celebration<\/a><\/p>\n

\"LandoPhoto by Jay Hirano\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n

But Piastri needed to improve significantly to lead Norris in the 2025 F1 standings ahead of the Belgian GP. McLaren told Piastri to improve his qualifying in 2025<\/a>, in particular, after he lost 20-4 to the Bristol native in their Grand Prix head-to-head battle over the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

How Piastri improved in qualifying has astounded Jolyon Palmer<\/a>, as well, having overturned what was his major weakness compared to Norris into one of his biggest strengths this year. Thanks to Norris\u2019 inconsistent form during Q3 sessions, Piastri leads their head-to-head 7-5.<\/p>\n

Piastri also leads Norris 2-0 in F1 Sprint Qualifying sessions ahead of the Belgian GP, where one of the McLaren drivers will break their 6-6 tie for Grand Prix results this season and 1-1 tie for Sprint results. And Piastri has responded well when his back has been up to the wall.<\/p>\n

While Norris won the season-opener in Melbourne from pole position, Piastri recovered to P9 after spinning from P2 in the Australian Grand Prix to immediately find himself 23 points behind in the championship. It took Piastri four Grands Prix and one F1 Sprint to lead by 10.<\/p>\n

Norris put the pressure back on Piastri\u2019s shoulders with his win in Monaco, but the 24-year-old hit back in Spain and benefitted from their collision in Canada. McLaren saw their pilots collide in Montreal, as Norris drove into Piastri in the Canadian GP<\/a> during their fight for P4.<\/p>\n

But from his low in Montreal came great highs, as Norris won the Austrian Grand Prix from pole and won the British Grand Prix last time out. Piastri\u2019s time penalty gave Norris the win at the British GP<\/a> after drawing a 10-second penalty due to a safety car restart infringement.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri is bidding to become Australia\u2019s first F1 champion since 1980, but he has now seen his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,874,817,813,816,1737,913,2333,85],"class_list":["post-14385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-david-coulthard","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}