Oscar Piastri warned Lando Norris asset ‘counts for a lot’ by McLaren champion

The championship battle between McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri is heating up — and while it’s Piastri at the top of the standings, Mika Hakkinen has pointed out that Norris’ experience in F1 “counts for a lot” as we hit the final six races of the year.

The former McLaren driver is confident that one of the two will secure the honors, though which of the two could take home the title remains to be seen.

Oscar Piastri strong, but Lando Norris has the experience

With just six grands prix remaining in the Formula 1 2025 season and two teammates — Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri of McLaren — battling hard for the honor of champion, we’re sure to be in for a compelling finish to the year.

Piastri currently leads the way with 336 points after a combination of seven wins and 14 podiums; behind him with 314 points is Norris, whose five wins and 14 podiums have left him trailing the Australian driver since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

But not far behind, with 273 points, is Max Verstappen. The reigning champion would have a major uphill battle if he wants to secure his fifth straight Drivers’ title victory, but the Red Bull racer has outperformed both McLaren drivers in the most recent three events in Italy, Azerbaijan, and Singapore.

So, who’s going to take victory?

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Mika Hakkinen and Jacques Villeneuve both weighed in on the ongoing championship fight in their position as guests at the Il Festival dello Sport di Trento, a four-day festival in Italy that honors some of the greatest athletes of our generation.

Naturally, with two former Formula 1 champions available, Hakkinen and Villeneuve were asked for their perspective on the 2025 fight, and who will win the Drivers’ Championship.

“I have to say McLaren, of course,” Hakkinen told the audience.

“The team will certainly give the drivers orders to avoid trouble. They are both very good.”

Yet both drivers on the team have their own unique advantages, which the Finnish driver expounded on.

“Lando has much more experience. That counts for a lot,” he said. “But he also has fewer points. So I don’t know, one of the two.”

Villeneuve, on the other hand, doesn’t believe McLaren has what it takes to become Drivers’ champions.

Asked who he felt would win the title, he replied, “Verstappen. And so it will be his best World Championship ever. Because the two McLaren drivers are suffering too much from the pressure. They need to wake up.”

While a McLaren driver seems an obvious choice for the title honors, Villeneuve is right to highlight Verstappen’s chances.

As the F1 2025 season comes to a close, most teams have already begun developmental work for the incoming 2026 season, which will bring with it a massive overhaul in chassis and engine regulations. Each team has had to determine when in 2025 they would need to cease introducing upgrades, instead focusing entirely on 2026.

McLaren has already made that cross-over; Red Bull has not. The Milton Keynes team introduced a new floor in Italy that completely transformed the difficult RB21 into a race-winning machine. Further, Red Bull has introduced small tweaks at subsequent races in an effort to further refine their machinery to accommodate the circuit in question.

Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, pointed this out in Singapore.

“They were competitive in Monza, very competitive. And then they were competitive in Baku,” he said during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, a circuit with vastly different downforce requirements to the high-speed Monza and Baku.

“We thought, ‘Let’s see whether this [competitiveness] depends on using a low level of drag, small rear wings, and [if] it can be repeated at high level drag and big rear wings’.

“Here in Singapore, they might have struggled a bit in the past, and the evidence is that they might have resolved both of these high-drag and Singapore factors.

“But this is not a surprise. It’s Red Bull. They are extremely capable.

“Max is a driver who is just Max Verstappen. I don’t think we need to make any further comments, so it’s no surprise that they are in the game.

“It’s tight, and it’s interesting; obviously, we would like to make Formula 1 boring. We have done it sometimes, at some of the events, but normally, Formula 1 is competitive and tight.

“You have to accept the fight, and that’s what we are doing.”

But Laurent Mekies, new CEO and team principal for Red Bull, pointed out that the abundance of mid-speed corners at coming tracks like Circuit of The Americas and Mexico City are corners where “McLaren has been very strong.”

Who’s set to take the title? We won’t know until the chequered flag falls in Abu Dhabi.

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