Oscar Piastri prompts Lando Norris ‘displacement’ theory from Damon Hill

1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill believes Lando Norris will be feeling a sense of “displacement” as Oscar Piastri outscores him.

Oscar Piastri has eclipsed Lando Norris’ performance levels recently, and has closed in more on his teammate’s lead over him in the Drivers’ Championship than Norris has managed on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Damon Hill: It’s a difficult one for Lando Norris

Since McLaren claimed their first win of F1 2024 as Lando Norris beat Verstappen to victory in Miami, the British driver has been earmarked as Verstappen’s closest challenger for the title.

On that day in Miami, Verstappen’s championship lead was 56 points, with the gap now at 59 points following Norris pulling back three points in Azerbaijan.

But, behind Norris, Piastri has been closing the gap more quickly on his teammate than Norris has been managing on Verstappen. With victory in Hungary, it’s released the floodgates of more consistent performance for Piastri as he claimed second place in Belgium, second place in Monza, and an emphatic win in Azerbaijan – Norris coming out on top in Zandvoort as he romped to victory after catching and passing Verstappen.

But Piastri’s form is such that he’s hauling himself into contention as lead McLaren driver and an outside chance for the title, presenting McLaren with a headache as it attempts to give Norris a “bias” if opportunities present themselves to favour him in terms of results.

Norris has put in the hard yards with McLaren, joining the team in 2019 and being with the squad through its rebuild under CEO Zak Brown and team bosses Andreas Seidl and Andrea Stella, but his positioning as the de facto leader of the outfit has come under threat as Piastri threatens his authority – and Damon Hill says he believes Norris is finding that difficult.

Hill is no stranger to having had a similar situation occur, with reigning IndyCar Champion Jacques Villeneuve joining Williams in 1996. Hill had been there for three years at that point and had become a team leader in the wake of Ayrton Senna’s death in early 1994. But Villeneuve came in and was immediately a match for Hill, pushing him all the way to the season finale, before Hill lost his seat in favour of Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

“I think it’s a difficult one for Lando,” Hill said on the Sky F1 podcast.

“I think the storyline has been that Zak found a very talented young driver, he’s promoted him when he was very young, and he’s had the upper hand at McLaren. It’s been his home.

“Then a new guy arrives, this apparently insignificant, sort of quiet, unassuming chap comes in and, my God, he is incredibly talented, so he’s a match for Lando.

“That’s difficult for Lando, to be feeling the displacement, if you like, because you want, obviously, in any team, to be the key player.

“But, of course, they now have to accept that Oscar is not going to be prepared to just sit there and learn for another three years. He’s already arrived. He’s unbelievable.

“That is not to say that Lando is not also unbelievable. In race situations, mostly, my impression has been that Lando has been the quicker, perhaps more experienced guy, and Oscar has, on a few races this year, not been as quick when Lando has been out in front of him.”

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Harry Benjamin: Lando Norris needs to show Oscar Piastri

With Piastri’s form relative to Norris, at a time when it’s the British driver much closer to Verstappen in the championship, Sky F1 commentator Harry Benjamin said Norris needs to show more of a ‘nothing to lose’ attitude, pointing to the example of Norris backing off for the yellow flag at the end of Q1.

“The problem is, if we look at the Drivers Championship as well, the guy chasing Verstappen is obviously Lando Norris,” he said.

“But the problem for McLaren is that they need Norris to be showing a bit more Piastri form because, over the last few races, Piastri has been the top scorer by some and more.

“They’re both excellent drivers, but, however you want to word it, the first bit of bad luck in this dash towards the end of the season went the way of Lando Norris with that yellow flag in qualifying.

“But then I wonder, when you are the one chasing, nothing much to lose, whether he did need to back off at the moment where he was on the track where the yellow flag came out.

“If he’s chasing, does he just go for it? Take the penalty later. That kind of thing, when you have got essentially nothing to lose.

“It’s still a big margin. This is still Verstappen’s championship to lose, by miles. But it’s those little moments across a race weekend that will be truly defining.”

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