Lando Norris makes huge Oscar Piastri admission after worrying Singapore GP team radio

Elizabeth Blackstock
Lando Norris McLaren Formula 1 F1 PlanetF1 Singapore Grand Prix practice

Lando Norris lamented a challenging practice session ahead of the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix.

With just seven grands prix remaining in the F1 2025 season, every on-track session and every point is critical for the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the two of whom are locked in a tight battle for the drivers’ championship.

Yet following FP2 ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, Norris was left lamenting his own skill as a driver, telling race engineer Will Joseph that his “car’s not a half a second off; my driving is half a second off” in pace compared to Piastri.

Lando Norris: “Missing the feeling” of Singapore 2024

The 2024 Singapore Grand Prix was one of Lando Norris’ four victories during the driver’s breakout season, allowing him to continue carving down the gap to then-championship leader Max Verstappen.

This year, Norris finds himself in somewhat of the same championship position, in that he’s trailing another driver for that top slot in the standings. But in 2025, Norris’ main title rival is his teammate Oscar Piastri, and in practice thus far, the Briton has been “missing all the feelings” in his McLaren that he had en route to his victory at Marina Bay in 2024.

Even worse, the driver told his race engineer Will Joseph near the end of FP2 that “my car’s not half a second off; my driving’s half a second off” when compared to his teammate Oscar Piastri.

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FP2 overall was a difficult session, with several red flags halting action as debris from various wrecks needed to be removed from the track. Then, even worse for Norris: as he pulled out of his pit box, the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc darted out just in front of him.

The two machines made contact, with the MCL39’s front wing cracking into the pit wall and completely separating from the rest of the body. While it did require some repairs, and as Norris told Ted Kravitz after the session, it “cost the team a bit of money,” the Briton was able to get back out on track.

Unfortunately, Norris could do no batter than fifth on the timing charts, +0.483 seconds in arrears of his pace-setting teammate Oscar Piastri.

Asked about his experience, Norris admitted that it was “just a difficult day for me; not feeling too great with the car, missing all the feelings that I had here last year.

“Plenty of things to work on. Just a bad day.”

He continued by adding, “I mean, Oscar’s quick, so I’ve got nothing to complain about, bar just not doing a very good job.”

Without any heavy-fuel running and no plans for making up for that loss in FP3, Norris admitted that he’s planning to “just wing it and go into the race.”

It was a dramatically different story for Piastri up at the front of the field.

“I think I found my feet on the medium [tyre] at the end there, and then soft’s felt good,” the Australian said.

“Obviously not much representative kind of running, but the car’s been in a good place. I feel like I’ve learned a lot through today, and that’s the aim of practice.

“So it’s been a good day.”

Asked to describe more about the logic of his run plan, Piastri replied, “More or less, I think, here qualify is a massive part of the weekend. It’s a massive part everywhere, but especially here, it’s one of the most important.

“You’d rather qualify it further up and deal with the unknown for the race than qualify further back but know exactly what’s gonna happen in the race, because it’s not really going to help you.”

Those are two dramatically different takeaways from the duo currently battling for the championship, and it sounds as if Lando Norris will have plenty of work to do on Saturday to set himself up well for the race.

Read next: Singapore GP: Piastri tops crash-strewn FP2 as Norris, Leclerc crash in the pits and Russell at T16