Lando Norris rejects Oscar Piastri title theory as McLaren F1 star left frustrated

Lando Norris insists he does not need to rely on Oscar Piastri suffering misfortune to clinch the Formula 1 championship. The British driver finds himself trailing his McLaren team-mate by 34 points with nine rounds and 249 points still up for grabs after retiring from last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix due to engine failure.

Norris' DNF at Zandvoort leaves him battling from behind in his quest to pip Piastri to his first drivers' title. With McLaren dominating the field, mechanical woes for Piastri might represent the Brit's best chance of getting back into contention.

However, speaking at Monza on Thursday ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, Norris declared: "I can still win the championship without anything happening [to Piastri] and that is the way I wish to do it.

"It would certainly make my life easier if there were some more drivers in between us every now and then, but we are so dominant as a team, that almost makes my life harder. That is really the most frustrating part of it all. But may the best man win, may the best driver win. If that is the case at the end of the season (and Piastri wins) then I will respect that."

Norris was poised to claim second place behind Piastri at Zandvoort before his power unit expired in the final stages. The Australian would have taken an extra seven points over his team-mate, but the fateful engine failure saw him secure a 25-point boost instead.

Piastri has triumphed seven times this season, two more victories than Norris, though the Englishman remains the sole McLaren driver to have suffered a race-ending mechanical failure this campaign. Piastri has not failed to finish a race since the 2023 United States Grand Prix in October that year.

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However, Norris went on to say: "It's just something that happens. It's not [team principal] Andrea [Stella] or [chief executive] Zak [Brown's] fault. We were on the back of 60 or so races without a technical failure and that is something we were pretty proud about.

"So for that to happen, that's just unlucky, and it wasn't a bad job done by anyone. The team apologised to me because they felt as though they have let me down. The same way I apologise to them if I feel like I have let them down.

"But that is life, you cannot do anything about it, and if I lose the championship by those points, then I just have to take it on the chin, move on and hold my head high and try and do it again next year. I cannot dwell on it."

As for Piastri, the championship leaders said he knows his team-mate is "certainly not out of the fight". He said: "It is a bit more difficult now, but I do not expect much to change. I think we will race each other the same way. I think the amount of risk-taking will be the same – we are both trying to drive as fast as we can and it is not like we have been holding anything back from that side of things, so I do not expect anything to change."