Mexico City Grand Prix: Lando Norris takes ‘graphic win’

Norris admitted after the race in Mexico that there were times earlier this year when he “definitely” doubted himself.

He said: “When the car was winning and Oscar was the winner, the last thing I could do was use the excuse that my car wasn’t good enough.

“I couldn’t control it and find a way to make it work, but I’m finding a better way to make it work now, so it’s as simple as that.”

Now Piastri is facing that feeling, after two difficult weekends during which he was off the pace.

“For some reason, recent weekends have required a completely different way of driving,” Piastri said.

“What’s worked well for me the last 19 races, I needed something completely different the last two weekends. Trying to understand why that is has been a bit of a struggle.”

After qualifying 0.588 seconds behind and seven places behind Norris in Mexico, Piastri spent Saturday night digging into the data with his engineers, trying to come up with some answers.

The race was about trying to apply it – even if he wasn’t able to get a definitive answer on whether it worked or not, given that he spent most of it stuck behind other cars on his way to a fifth-place finish that would have felt painful, but was actually a solid recovery and an exercise in damage limitation.

“In the end today was about trying some of these things,” Piastri continued. “Because driving the way I have been driving over the past two weekends has not been particularly natural for me.

Team boss Andrea Stella had an explanation for Piastri’s struggles.

He said Norris excels in low-grip conditions, while Piastri’s driving style leans more towards high-grip levels, and noted that in only his third season, Piastri still has things to learn about adapting to different conditions.

“In the last four races, there is no reason to think that someone would favor one driver over another,” Stella said, pointing to Las Vegas as the most problematic for the team.

“For Lando and Oscar, there is no problem with the track layout in the next four races. If anything, we need to make sure that from McLaren’s point of view, we are in a position to get the full performance available in the car, as we were able to do here in Mexico.”

“Confidence has increased regarding the championship. It has increased because we have proven that we have a car that can win races and in some conditions can dominate races. This is the most important factor to put Lando and Oscar in good condition to continue the drivers’ championship.”