“Oscar Piastri has got inside Lando Norris’ head”, claims Juan Pablo Montoya

Former Formula 1 star Juan Pablo Montoya believes Lando Norris’ recent drop in performance is caused by his teammate Oscar Piastri 'getting inside his head'.

While Norris kicked off his title challenge with a brilliant lights-to-flag victory in mixed conditions in Australia, a number of errors since then have allowed Piastri to grab a 10-point lead in the championship.

This month’s Saudi Arabian GP perfectly encapsulated the contrasting fortunes of the McLaren duo; while Norris crashed in qualifying and could only recover to fourth from 10th on the grid, Piastri clinched his third victory of the season with a relatively straightforward drive.

The shift in pendulum at McLaren has made Piastri the new favourite for the 2025 title, despite the Australian having much less experience in F1 than Norris.

Montoya believes Norris’ confidence has taken a beating due to Piastri’s form - and the Briton needs to focus on himself instead of being concerned about what’s happening on the other side of the garage.

“Absolutely, Oscar Piastri has got inside Lando Norris’s head,” the Colombian was quoted by GrandPrix247. “Lando just wants so much more that it’s not there, realistically.

“I think somebody needs to be on Lando’s corner to go to him and say, ‘Just stop looking at Oscar. Just do you.’ At the weekend, he said he felt clueless and like he’d never driven an F1 car before. Then he made those mistakes.”

He added: “What you can see clearly is that he’s putting enough pressure on Lando to force him into making mistakes. If Lando stays in his bubble and does what Lando does best without worrying about Oscar, I think Lando could beat him pretty easily.”

Montoya believes Norris needs to accept that the margins between him and Piastri are likely to stay thin, but he can still have the upper hand over him in the title fight.

“The problem is, Oscar is getting too close for him,” the 49-year-old explained. “I think Lando wants to see like a two or three tenths of a second gap where he can relax.

“When he has that, he can push comfortably knowing he has that cushion. But when that cushion is not there, he tries to create a cushion when it’s not needed.

“You can be on pole by half a tenth, or a tenth. But he’s not looking to be on pole by a tenth of a second – he wants three or four. And that’s where the mistakes are coming. They are self-inflicted.”

Following a Saudi weekend in which Max Verstappen claimed pole position for Red Bull but was ultimately beaten to victory, Norris claimed that McLaren did not have the fastest car in Jeddah- a claim that was refuted by Piastri.

Montoya was unimpressed by those comments from Norris, saying he shouldn’t be making excuses for his lack of pace.

“Every other year when Lando’s done good, he was the underdog,” he said. “And this time, like he’s defending himself, saying, ‘We’re still really good, it’s not the car.’

“They are in the best car. He’s putting extra pressure on himself. He shouldn’t be making excuses and apologising. He should just celebrate that they have the best car, tell everyone that everybody on the team is doing an amazing job, and that we’re winning the races.”

McLaren has insisted on treating both Norris and Piastri equally so far, stressing that there will be no ‘number one’ or ‘number two’ driver in the team.

However, it remains unclear if McLaren will have to deviate from this approach later in the season, especially if Verstappen emerges as a stronger threat in the title fight.

F1 driver-turned-pundit Johnny Herbert recently said McLaren would have to eventually “favour one of the drivers” as keeping things equal between them is “impossible”.

Asked whether the Woking-based squad should prioritise Piastri over Norris at this stage, with Verstappen only 12 points off the lead in the championship standings, Montoya said: “That would be difficult.

“I think if Lando had an advantage, it would be clearer to tell Oscar, ‘OK, let’s be smart.’ That’s not the case.

“I think what they’re going to do is to base everything on qualifying at the moment. They want to score them. They want to maximise the amount of constructors’ points and they don’t want them to race each other this early in the year.

“Basically, if you qualify ahead, it’s yours. Unless something major happens or you go off, they’re going to control the situation until race 15. At that point, the constructors’ championship should be done.”