F1 news: Has Oscar Piastri overtaken Lando Norris for the McLaren top spot?

Oscar Piastri has won six races and achieved eleven podiums so far in this Formula 1 season. He is also currently leading the Drivers’ championship standings.

A close second is McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, who many people classed as the better of the two drivers at the start of the season, especially what Norris did last season to help them secure the Constructors’ Championship.

Here, Sports News Blitz writer Harrison Pearce explores whether Oscar Piastri has actually overtaken his British team-mate Lando Norris to that number one driver’s spot.

Expectations at the start of the season

At the start of the season, the main expectation was to take the momentum from last season’s Constructors' championship win and try TO compete for both competitions again.

If you asked most F1 fans, and even McLaren fans, they probably would not have expected their team to have done so well after having a strong start to the season.

There is an argument to be made that McLaren are going to walk away with both championship titles after only 13 races being played.

Is Piastri the better driver

Oscar Piastri is currently sitting on 266 points, having won six races and achieved eleven podiums, which makes him first in the drivers championship.

When you think about drivers being spoken about at the start of the season, it was mainly the rivalry between Max Verstappen and Norris.

However, that couldn’t be further from the truth, as it is between the two McLaren drivers instead.

What Piastri has done to achieve dominance over every other driver in F1 this season has been exceptional in the sense of him being in the conversation to win most of the races so far.  

He has set a new record for the most wins in an F1 season by an Australian driver, and winning three back-to-back races shows how he has evolved over the recent years.  

Norris finishing in second place at the Belgium GP made it McLaren’s sixth one-two finish of the season.

That number is the most the sport has seen since Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna scored 10 in 1998.

The demise of other teams

One key aspect of McLaren’s success could be aimed towards the demise of certain teams trying to challenge them, but ultimately failing to make a significant imprint on the races.

The likes of Red Bull, for example, have had a poor start to the season, changed drivers after a few races, sacked Christian Horner and dropped down to fourth in the Constructors’ championship.

There is a real case to be made that Red Bull didn’t think the fall would be this bad, considering their recent glory days.

However, it looked like they were in a transitional season from the opening race after Liam Lawson finished in fifteenth place.  

When you think about Ferrari, they also haven’t lived up to the hype everyone was giving them, either, because signing Lewis Hamilton hasn’t made the Italian team win more races.

They are most likely in a similar position compared to last season, being in P5 and P6.

Both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are still waiting to get their first win of the season. However, it is Leclerc who is driving Ferrari forward with his five podiums.

The third team spoken about in high regard would be Mercedes after George Russell became their number one driver, and the exciting new talent in Andrea Kimi Antonelli on their books. 

Even though Russell is fourth in the Drivers’ championship, it looks like catching up to McLaren has become almost out of reach after being 109 points away from Piastri.

At the Belgium GP, Russell finished in fifth place, but he has not had a top-four finish since winning in Canada. We will have to wait and see when the Brit can achieve this target again this season.

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What Norris can do to reclaim his no. 1 seat

The short answer is to start winning races because if you can’t beat team-mate Piastri, then it isn't good to be compared to the greats of the sport.

Then again, it’s a good problem to have for McLaren because it means they have two of the best drivers in F1 at the moment. 

There is no denying that Piastri has outperformed his British team-mate Norris this season.

But that doesn’t mean we should forget the great things Norris has done for McLaren to help them get into this position in the first place.

Either way, there are exciting times ahead for McLaren to potentially take over as the most dominant team in F1 for the years to come.

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