(Motorsport-Total.com) – Dear readers,
On August 31, 2025, Oscar Piastri won the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, and Lando Norris retired with an oil leak. Norris wanted to “just grab a burger and go home” in the face of this bitter disappointment, was 34 points behind Piastri in the championship, and my own race report from back then was titled “World Championship Decider in Zandvoort?”
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What a difference a year makes!
In hindsight, it almost feels like a surreal parallel universe, that world in which Piastri was about to become Formula 1 World Champion, Norris was somehow labeled as the eternal talent who ultimately just couldn’t pull it off when it really mattered – and where Kimi Antonelli had 64 points to his name and George Russell 184. I admit openly: I was also among those who secretly thought Toto Wolff might have been mistaken about the young Italian.
Now Norris is World Champion, even Nico Rosberg considers Antonelli something like the next Ayrton Senna – and if the boldest optimists seriously believe that McLaren can still have a say in the title fight in 2026, then they are probably only thinking of Norris.
Seventh in the championship: Numbers don’t lie
Oscar Piastri has gone from the upcoming champion to the perceived number 2 within twelve months. His manager Mark Webber, whom many believed back then could be an important piece on the way to the world championship, was downgraded to a perceived side note in Team Piastri. And with a 32-second deficit to Norris in Zandvoort and 55 points behind Norris in the championship, supposedly everything is said. Numbers don’t lie.
It must hurt Piastri when Andrea Stella raves about how Norris can best showcase his outstanding talent in conditions when grip is low and the tires are hard. And at the same time explains that Piastri has to do things with the 2026 McLaren that go against his driving instinct just to even remotely exploit the car’s potential.
Not that Stella is doing anything wrong: The ex-Ferrari man is probably the most diplomatic team principal in Formula 1. Someone who masters the game with words so skillfully that he would never even give the impression that he sees a number 1 and a number 2 among his drivers.
But a year later, many fans feel confirmed who have always claimed on Reddit and elsewhere that Norris was actually the secret favorite of the McLaren team from the start, especially of CEO Zak Brown. As if Norris were the firstborn, and Piastri “only” the adopted son picked up from the street in Paris but never loved the same way. (Sorry, Renault, for the polemical phrasing…)
It is unlikely that Piastri has forgotten how to race in twelve months. But in 2025 he may have lost the championship a bit because after Zandvoort the ease seemed to have vanished that should have protected him from switching from attack to management regarding the points lead. And because the 2026 car generation does not seem to be the toy he likes to play with the most.
“It wasn’t the first race where the pace just wasn’t there,” sighed Piastri after the race as he tried to explain his sixth place in the so-called TV pen. A few meters away, Norris sat all alone in the FIA press conference, smiled – and said things like: “I certainly manage to eliminate my weaknesses on track. And I don’t have that many.”
From wonder kid to McLaren’s number 2?
When Piastri moved from Renault to McLaren in one of the more controversial transfers in recent Formula 1 history in a contractually tricky night-and-fog operation, he was touted as a potential wonder kid. He had won everything there was to win before Formula 1 at first attempt, and after a decent but not outstanding first year alongside Norris, he seemed to confirm all the advance praise for months in 2025.
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While Norris openly talked about his feelings and weaknesses and this was interpreted by many as a human crack in his armor, Piastri didn’t talk much – he just won races. Cold-blooded, ruthless, without unnecessary frills.
But Formula 1 in 2026 has moved far away from what hobby racers know from some indoor kart tracks – namely that in the end the one with the biggest balls who drives fastest and cleanest through the corners and doesn’t do anything stupid always wins. The new Formula 1 is like a chess game where the big balls are not irrelevant, but the smart juggling with complex parameters like energy deployment and peak tire performance takes on overriding importance.
Or, put differently: In the past, you could still become world champion if you could drive the fastest. Nowadays, in a starting field where the level is probably higher than ever before, that is by far not enough anymore.
It would be an exciting experiment to put the 2026 field back into the 2025 cars. Would Piastri win again then? Would Lewis Hamilton struggle again with the Ferrari? Ultimately, it is irrelevant. Formula 1 World Championships are won in reality. The parallel universes exist only on Reddit. And from a fan’s perspective, it’s fun to get lost in them.
What distinguishes Piastri from Antonelli
There is a difference between the Piastris of this world and the Antonellis. Antonelli struck like lightning in his very first Formula 1 practice in Monza. Everyone could see that this boy was something special. A natural talent, born with the right instincts.
Piastri seems more like the type of driver who needs a bit more time to adapt to new conditions and really blossom.
I don’t mean that he is fundamentally less skilled. I wouldn’t be surprised if the headlines in a year or two sound completely different again. Hamilton has proven that you should never write off the true masters. An example that Piastri might want to cling to when he can’t fall asleep again because of too much thinking…
Your
Christian Nimmervoll
Note: It is in the nature of things that this column reflects my subjective perception. Anyone who disagrees is welcome to discuss it with me, on my Facebook page “Formula 1 inside with Christian Nimmervoll”. There you won’t primarily find “breaking news” from the Grand Prix circus, but above all strictly subjective and sometimes quite biting assessments of the most important developments behind the scenes of Formula 1.
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