Lando Norris arrived in Brazil as the leader of the world championship for the first time since April, having moved 1 point ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri with victory in Mexico.
Piastri was 34 points clear after Zandvoort, but has failed to beat Norris in any of the last five races, marking a big slump in form for the Australian. So where has it been going wrong?
One thing McLaren identified about Piastri’s struggles in Austin and Mexico in particular was the track characteristic.
Both of those tracks are very low grip, conditions in which McLaren has found Piastri tends to struggle more as the MCL39 car needs to be driven in a slightly different way. That style comes much more naturally to Norris.
By contrast, Piastri’s strength has come on the high-grip tracks, according to McLaren — which could bode well for Interlagos as the track has been relaid for this year, meaning it should rubber in quickly with the more laps that are completed.