Why Ecclestone ‘bet on’ Oscar Piastri long ago in clear Lando Norris verdict

Bernie Ecclestone said it took only three races for him to “bet on” McLaren driver Oscar Piastri for the F1 2025 title.

And the former F1 supremo believes Lando Norris cannot hold a candle to his McLaren team-mate “mentally” as the papaya duo battle it out for the crown.

Oscar Piastri versus Lando Norris: Who will be champion?

While reigning four-time World Champion Max Verstappen kept himself in the hunt for a fifth straight crown initially, the F1 2025 Drivers’ Championship battle has since transformed into a two-horse race.

Verstappen has fallen 97 points behind Piastri in top spot with 10 rounds to go, but Norris is hot on Piastri’s heels having reduced his lead to nine points with three wins from his last four grands prix.

The stage has been set for a thrilling title scrap between the McLaren drivers. Only one of them can become World Champion for the first time.

However, Ecclestone has long since been clear in his mind that Piastri will win the title.

“I bet on the Australian after just three races!” Ecclestone told Swiss-German outlet Blick.

Expanding on why he has such confidence in Piastri, Ecclestone cast a brutal verdict regarding Norris’ mentality.

“He goes his own way,” Ecclestone added on Piastri, “and is mentally far superior to Norris.”

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris head-to-head in F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

It was shortly after those first three races that Norris opened up on his mentality battle.

The Brit has bravely opened up on his mental health struggles in the past and can often be heard giving himself a hard time when on-track performances are not up to his standards.

Speaking at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Norris said: “It’s a balance, I think I’m clearly still trying to improve on.

“Such as this week, trying to remind myself of the good things. I do think of the bad stuff, the negative things, more than I think of the positives.

“I have to get reminded that I’m leading the championship and that I won the first race and things like that, and I’ve been on the podium every race. I have to get reminded of them rather than just being able to remind myself.

“I know I’m hard and I know I’m tough on myself, but for 95 per cent of it, I think it’s a good thing. I think it’s what makes me who I am and makes me have a chance in Formula 1 and be with McLaren and be fighting for a world championship.

“I accept that there’s probably the last few per cent which can be a very important few per cent where I probably say too many negatives and that gets into my own head and I don’t think of the positives as much as I should.

“I probably just don’t remind myself enough of [the positives] and that’s probably something, the main area I would say that I need to improve on.”

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