31/07/2025 09:00
Former F1 team principal Guenther Steiner believes Lando Norris'
minor mistakes will cost him in the title fight this year. Norris
is engaged in a championship battle with McLaren team-mate Oscar
Piastri, with the latter holding a 16-point lead in the drivers'
standings. Piastri eked out his advantage with a victory at the
Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, while Norris was forced to settle
for second. In the closing stages of the race, Norris was chasing
Piastri for the lead, but a couple of mistakes at Turn 1 hurt his
pursuit of the Australian. Although the mistake was small, Steiner
highlighted they have been a consistent feature of Norris' season
to date. "We see it over and over again with Lando," Steiner told
the Red Flags podcast. "He makes these little mistakes and
therefore, I always say that Oscar will win the championship. "That
is what makes the difference. He is as fast as Oscar if everything
goes right. "But he has just got these small glitches. They come
from nowhere and you never know when they are coming." Early
Belgian GP overtake 'not a mistake' from Lando Norris Norris
started the race from Spa-Francorchamps from pole position but lost
his lead when the race finally got underway after a rain delay. The
Briton was overtaken by Piastri on the run to Turn 5. While
accepting Piastri was braver through the opening segment of the
restart, Steiner denied it was an error on Norris' part. "It's not
a mistake, I don't know how much you can avoid it. It's very
difficult to avoid," he said. "But the guy behind needs to be on
it, otherwise you can't do it. Oscar, you could see he was braver,
he was flat through [Eau Rouge]. "The combination of the slipstream
and being fast made it possible for him to overtake. "The restarts,
you need to be smart and outsmart the guy behind you. He didn't
because Oscar was really on him. "You can always say 'He could have
been smarter with the restart' but sometimes you get it right,
sometimes you don't."
