Juan Pablo Montoya’s championship advice for Lando Norris after huge Dutch GP blow

Never mind counting the cost of his Dutch Grand Prix engine failure, Juan Pablo Montoya reckons the first price Lando Norris paid in Zandvoort was sharing too much information with his teammate Oscar Piastri.

Information that meant while the Briton dominated the practice sessions, clinching the hat-trick, Piastri took pole position and put pressure on the British racer.

Lando Norris trails Oscar Piastri by 34 points

Piastri and Norris went into the Zandvoort weekend separated by nine points, they left with the Australian driver holding a 34-point advantage in the race for the F1 2025 World title.

It was, Norris’ engine failure aside, an unexpected outcome given Norris dominated the practice sessions.

The British racer set the pace in all three practice sessions, and headed into Saturday’s qualifying having beaten Piastri in FP3 by almost a quarter of a second.

But in the all-important qualifying, it was the Australian driver who came to the fore before taking pole position by 0.012s.

And in a case of what can go wrong will go wrong, what started out as losing track position to Piastri and having to chase, ended in an engine failure late in the grand prix.

It cost Norris in the title fight as he now trails Piastri by 34 points with nine race weekends remaining.

Lando Norris v Oscar Piastri: F1 2025 head-to-head stats

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

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

But while Norris was hurt by McLaren’s near bulletproof reliability, he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets in Monza that he by no means wants the playing field to be levelled by a similar such mishap for his teammate.

“I can still win the championship without anything happening (to Piastri),” the Briton said. “That’s the way I wish to do it.

“It would certainly make my life easier if there were just some more drivers in between every now and then. The thing is, we’re so dominant as a team and that almost makes my life harder.”

But in order for that to happen, former F1 driver Montoya says Norris needs to close the door of communication between his side of the garage and Piastri’s.

“It’s very sad that he dominated the whole weekend and basically showed Piastri what to do all weekend, and in the end, Piastri did better again,” Montoya told the AS Colombia YouTube channel.

“So it’s a good lesson, it’s a good way to look at things – if you have something, save a little bit, because now, the truth is, you can use it and make a difference.

“If you keep making the difference in practice, your teammate understands, analyses and changes. They look at your differential, your pedals and what you’re doing.

“You can adapt a lot to the other driver and learn a lot. And that’s what Piastri did last weekend.

“So that’s where not showing all your cards comes into play. If Lando knows he’s doing well, he shouldn’t show everything he’s got right from the start of the weekend.”

With his chances of winning a maiden World title on the line, Norris summed up what he reckons he needs to do.

“The only thing I can do is win every race,” he stated. “That’s gonna be difficult.”

“I’ll make sure I give it everything I can.”

However, when it comes to the championship battle, “It’s just close.”

“I have a good teammate,” Norris confided.

“He’s strong, he’s quick in every situation, every scenario, so it’s hard to get things back on someone who’s just good in pretty much every situation.

“[Zandvoort] is just a different situation. It’s just unlucky. It’s not my fault, and sometimes that’s just racing.

“But yeah, certainly hasn’t helped, the race; it’s only made it harder for me and put me in more pressure, but it’s almost a big enough gap now that I can just chill out about it.”

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