F1 world champion advises Lando Norris to work with mental coach to aid title bid

2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg believes Lando Norris would benefit from working with a mental coach to strengthen his 2025 title bid.

Norris is 10 points behind teammate Oscar Piastri in the race for this year’s F1 world title.

While Norris is firmly in the title hunt, it’s not been a smooth season for the British driver.

Piastri has generally enjoyed the upper hand, winning five races compared to Norris’ two.

Norris’ season, particularly in qualifying, has been littered with errors.

Piastri has already out-qualified Norris five times this year - more than last year.

The Spanish Grand Prix was a decisive blow for Norris, given Piastri had struggled in the last two visits to Barcelona.

Rosberg, who beat Lewis Hamilton to the 2016 title, famously worked with a sports psychologist to help him.

The German feels Norris should do the same, having witnessed the McLaren driver struggle in qualifying at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Rosberg said: “Everything had gone perfectly.

“He was first until the last run, and it was just every corner a little mistake, every corner overdoing it, every corner running wide on the exit, getting a snap on the exit through the whole lap.

“I mean, wow! So what does he have to do? From my point of view, he needs to work on the mental side.

“We’re all spending hours and hours training our bodies, and I don’t know if Lando has a mental coach and if he works with a psychologist or not.

“He definitely should because there is so much value in working with one. It helped me so much to understand, to figure out the best possible approach.

“In my championship year, two hours every two days leading up to the season in the spring was huge. It was more difficult than the actual physical training. It was insanely difficult but so extremely valuable.”

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While Piastri has the momentum, the two McLaren drivers are separated by just 10 points ahead of next weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen appears to be out of contention after his 10th-place finish in Barcelona.

Verstappen had finished fifth but was hit with a 10-second time penalty for colliding with George Russell.

The reigning world champion is just one penalty point away from a race suspension.

Verstappen will see two of his current penalty points expire at the end of the month, meaning he must have clean races in Canada and Austria.

The technical directive introduced in Barcelona hasn’t curtailed McLaren’s season.

Despite intense pressure from Verstappen on an aggressive three-stop strategy, they remained the team to beat across the Spanish GP weekend.