McLaren confirms dominance
The World Cup leader doesn’t even understand his car
The World Cup leader doesn’t even understand his car
04/14/2025, 8:35 p.m.
So far, Oscar Piatri has won two out of four races in this Formula 1 season. McLaren also underlines his dominance in Bahrain. Because Lando Norris also drives onto the podium. He doesn’t get along with his car. This is a warning to the competition.
“It’s just that something doesn’t fit, something doesn’t click. And that’s why I just don’t feel comfortable when I’m sitting in the car.” Lando Norris sounds somewhat stubborn, the Formula 1 driver didn’t get together too much during the race in Bahrain. And yet: The Briton managed to third on the podium, had the hope of suppressing his compatriot George Russell in Mercedes from second place until the end.
In addition: Norris is the leader of the World Cup ranking. He has three points ahead of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piatri. The Australian won in Bahrain – and secured the second victory of the season after the triumph at the China Grand Prix.
Piatri is the man of the hour. “I am very happy with this result, it was an incredible weekend. It started in qualifying, now we have brought the job to the end with a lot of style,” he said after his start-finish victory. Praise also comes from the experts: “He can implement the potential of the car perfectly at the crucial moment,” says ex-racing driver Christian Danner. The RTL expert certifies Piatri to be “more hard-boiled, cooler” and “make fewer mistakes” than Norris.
“Lando put a pretty miserable weekend. He never really got into the stockings in qualifying and training and that was also very out of round in the race. He has many mistakes and many little things that were not so good,” then continued. “And Piatri has mercilessly exploited that. The McLaren is still good enough to win.”
“Car is obviously mega”
Norris himself also looks to blame for himself and not with the racing car: “The car is obviously mega, as Oscar showed. But yes, today there were just too many mistakes.” First he set himself too far behind in the starting line-up, then he corrected too far forward-and received a five-second penalty because he had started outside his start box.
This was followed: Norris was on the defensive early, had to stop earlier than planned and mistakes lined up with mistakes: “I had the punishment. I had to put more pressure to catch up five seconds. I almost did it,” said Norris. “But then I drove on all tires, much hotter tires, and paid for the price again. Every time I did something well, I did two things bad, so to speak.” Then he delivered a number of rough bike-to-wheel bikes with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton on the route and finally he failed on Russell. When asked what he could take out of the race, he said: “That I got to the finish, probably.”
His teammate Piatri did it much more relaxed. Even though his car needed a repair. Because the Australian drove brilliantly, but had to do without drinking. The team even reminded him of it by radio, but he replied: “I would work if the drinking bottle worked.” After the race, he said: “I don’t know what happened. In the introductory round, it still worked, and when we connected her for the race, she also went a bit, but I had to suck the water quite strongly. And as soon as the race ran properly, nothing came through the straw.”
This should not be repeated in Dschidda in Saudi. There are currently temperatures far beyond the 30 degrees Celsius – it also takes at night to cool down. “If the next week had happened, that would have been a much bigger drama – but we make sure that it has been fixed by then,” said Piatri.
Does McLaren choose Piatri as a World Cup fighter?
Until the coming weekend there is not much time for repairs and for Norris to make friends. Then Saudi Arabia gets down to business. But it doesn’t seem as if he knew where to start. “I try to find out what has changed from last year to this year. Is it because of me? Is it the car?”
So much struggle, so many mistakes and still third place. The fact that it was enough for Norris, including the time penalty – to the podium, should be a warning for the competition. If teammate Piatri now gives him a tip on how the car is correct to act, the team in papaya colors should continue to storm further.
Piatri may also be a lone fighter. And it would take a concern for the team: which of the two drivers get the better treatment? With this decision, McLaren last had his problem. According to expert Danner, it would be very simple: If you put all the cards on a car in the World Cup fight, Piatri would currently be preferred. And who doesn’t want to have the best chances of a world champion title?
