Ex-Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle believes Lando Norris must be “mortally wounded” by McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri securing a victory that continues to evade him.
McLaren started the year battling to score points with an underdeveloped car, but the addition of a sizeable upgrade package in July propelled it into front-running territory.
That turnaround enabled Norris to sustain his most productive season since arriving in F1 with McLaren in 2019, scoring seven podiums and a career-best 205 points.
However, the Briton was unable to land an elusive F1 win, six times finishing runner-up to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who accrued a record-breaking 19 victories across 2023.
But while Piastri added just two grand prix podiums and trailed his team-mate by 108 points, the rookie did achieve a maiden F1 win during the Qatar Grand Prix Sprint race.
Although Norris is confident McLaren is on the “right track” towards competing for titles, Brundle reckons the 24-year-old would have been hurt by Piastri’s breakthrough moment.
“Let’s remember that Oscar Piastri won the Sprint race in Qatar in great style with Max trying to catch him,” Brundle highlighted on Sky F1’s end-of-season review video.
“Their [McLaren’s] new wind tunnel 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 [Italy and Russia 2021] where 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.”
But Brundle admits that Norris has had the upper hand in the McLaren intra-team rivalry and notes how Piastri’s arrival has elevated the former’s performance to new heights.
“Oscar Piastri has really sharpened Lando Norris up,” Brundle acknowledged.
“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.”
Meanwhile, Brundle’s fellow Sky F1 pundit Naomi Schiff regards Norris as a “special” talent and is convinced McLaren’s rate of progress will see his win drought end soon.
“He is special,” Schiff added on 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.”
