Martin Brundle offers F1 title advice to Lando Norris after painful DNF
Martin Brundle on how Lando Norris can put his Zandvoort disappointment behind him.
Martin Brundle has shared advice to Lando Norris after the car failure that has hurt his chances of fighting for the F1 world championship.
Norris was on course to finish at least second at the Dutch Grand Prix but suffered an oil leak with eight laps to go, forcing him to retire from P2.
The DNF, coupled with Oscar Piastri taking another victory, leaves Norris 34 points adrift of his McLaren teammate with nine races to go having suffered a major blow to his hopes of winning a maiden world title this year.
F1 commentator and former grand prix driver Brundle has advised Norris to “throw caution to the wind” in his bid to turn things around.
"It's a race and a sixth place that Oscar Piastri has in his pocket. But what comes around, goes around, in this business," Brundle told Sky Sports F1 at Monza.
"We have a tight first corner here at Monza, for example. There's a long way to go with nine grands prix and three sprints. I don't think Lando's in a position where he should throw caution to the wind.
"There's an element of, 'well, I have nothing to lose now,' but there's a lot of points up for grabs. There's no point in Lando wasting one heartbeat thinking about Zandvoort because he can't change it.
"All it would become is a double negative. If he starts using that to brake five metres later in the first corner, it will hurt him again, so he has to get his head down and drive the car as he knows and see what happens."
Lando Norris makes strong start
Norris already appears to have put the disappointment of Zandvoort behind him as he set the pace during second practice at the Italian Grand Prix.
The Briton finished 0.083 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in a disrupted FP2 to end the day quickest.
F1 championship leader Piastri was only fourth, having missed the first session as rookie Alex Dunne drove his McLaren car.
“It looks a bit close for my liking at the minute,” Norris said after second practice.
“Not bad, some small things to improve and for us to still be P1 is good. I think we improved some stuff from FP1 to FP2 but it’s just a bit close.
“We’re going to try and make that gap a bit bigger so we’re more comfortable.”
Ahead of the weekend, Norris insisted he wouldn’t be relying on luck to overturn his deficit to Piastri.
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