F1 legend backs Lando Norris to win title over Oscar Piastri: ‘Momentum is with him’

1992 F1 world champion Nigel Mansell has backed Lando Norris to win this year’s world championship with the momentum now back on his side.

Norris has taken back-to-back victories for the first time this year after coming out on top in Austria and Britain.

The British driver’s upturn in performances has coincided with a suspension upgrade.

The suspension tweak doesn’t improve performance but seems to have given Norris a better feel when driving McLaren’s 2025 F1 challenger.

Heading into next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, there are just eight points between the two McLaren drivers.

Giving his view on the title race, Mansell told Aceodds: “I think they’re going to have a great head-to-head battle all year but I think Lando will probably come out on top.

“Every time you win a race, you get more confidence and then you have to be very honest with yourself. Although you won the race, where could you have done better? And if you’re able to be honest with yourself even if you won the race, that you can improve, the next race you’ll improve again.

“Now they’re so close in qualifying. The team’s doing such a great job with supplying both drivers with exactly the same equipment and they are ahead of all the other teams. They don’t have to worry about anybody, that’s wonderful.

“I think Oscar will push Lando all the way and hey look, if something goes wrong, there’s a DNF with either of them, then someone’s gonna jump ahead on the points and then it’s a question whether the other car DNFs and it’s going to be competitive for the rest of the year.

“Head-to-head, it’s very, very close, but at the moment, the momentum is with Lando. You come off two wins. Monaco's a great win, Silverstone’s a brilliant win.

“Sadly Oscar screwed up, only a little bit and I sympathise with him but the regulations are the regulations. I have to say Max overdid it a little bit. I think it didn’t help to bring the situation to the attention of the stewards but he was very unlucky to get a 10-second penalty.

Team harmony ‘not a problem’ for McLaren

With McLaren running away with both championships, the in-team rivalry is expected to intensify.

Norris and Oscar Piastri collided at the Canadian Grand Prix during the latter stages.

However, with Norris entirely to blame for the incident and quickly apologising, tensions didn’t flare.

Mansell believes that the team atmosphere won’t become toxic with Zak Brown at the helm.

“I don’t think the team harmony is a problem at all, because Zak is one of the coolest chiefs there is, and he is on top of it.

“If you are on top of something and you have already adapted to what is about to come around the corner, there are no surprises.

“Both drivers know and you saw it in Austria as well when Oscar was warned not to run into Lando. They don’t want that manoeuvre seen again.

“They are driving very well together and as much as there is this massive

competitiveness between them, there is a healthy respect as well, and they both know that they can both win the championship. They want to do it honourably as well.”

“The worst thing you can do is win a championship in a dishonourable fashion.”