Ralf Schumacher highlights Norris’s ‘major weakness’ compared to Piastri and Verstappen

Former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher has argued that Oscar Piastri is the favorite for the 2025 title in large part because Lando Norris suffers from one major weakness: his overtaking.

According to Schumacher, Norris lags behind both his McLaren teammate and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen when it comes to initiating decisive and clean passes for on-track position.

Lando Norris weak in overtaking, says Ralf Schumacher

As we head into the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, the F1 2025 championship is heating up. Oscar Piastri may still lead the drivers’ title standings, but close behind him is McLaren teammate Lando Norris, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen taking massive chunks out of the points gap from third place.

While McLaren was expected to be a title favorite in 2025 thanks to is resounding turnaround at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix due to a major upgrade, many onlookers had suggested that it would be Lando Norris — the only driver to mount a significant challenge to Verstappen’s dominance during this regulatory era — leading the title charge.

And that was the case for the early part of the season following Norris’ win at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. However, it was Piastri who launched into the No. 1 slot soon after, keeping a firm grasp on that position ever since.

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Former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher recently sat down with t-online to discuss his perspective on the title — both why Piastri has been so strong as well as where Norris is lacking.

“Oscar is having an extremely strong, extremely consistent year,” Schumacher said.

However, his following assertion — that Piastri “hardly makes mistakes” and “mentally seems to be ahead” of his teammate — was made prior to the disastrous Azerbaijan Grand Prix, in which Piastri crashed out of both qualifying and the race itself.

Schumacher did note that for Norris to make up ground, “he would need his teammate to suffer a similar setback” to his power unit failure in Zandvoort — something that did indeed happen in Azerbaijan. Unfortunately for Norris, he was unable to majorly capitalize on his teammate’s DNF.

Still, Schumacher’s analysis of the two drivers remains relatively unaffected by recent events.

Asked if he felt that Piastri has surpassed Norris in terms of performance, Schumacher admitted, “You could say that – especially considering that this is only his third year in Formula 1, he is further ahead than Lando.

“I find one thing particularly remarkable: last year, his big weakness was his racing speed. He has obviously worked hard on that, because he has improved greatly in this area.

“And there’s something else that sets him apart for me.

“At the young age of 24, he is already leading the drivers’ standings and well on his way to his first title, yet he appears relatively calm about the situation, at least on the outside.”

That’s in stark contrast to Norris, who Schumacher feels “doesn’t always make the best decisions when overtaking, especially in relation to Oscar or Max Verstappen.”

“He often takes too long to get there, to get past, and sometimes he fails two or three attempts,” the German driver explained.

“That’s a big weakness he has.

“And since you mentioned it, he himself has talked about not always being mentally strong enough – something that has been evident repeatedly in his qualifying performances.”

In Formula 1, where every fraction of a second matters, the ability to accomplish an overtake decisively is critical to gaining track position. Norris has often seemed somewhat hesitant to initiate those kinds of decisive overtakes on the likes of Piastri and Verstappen, though it is worth noting that there are various external factors impacting those situations.

First is McLaren’s “papaya rules” mandate, which states that Norris and Piastri must race one another cleanly, respectfully, and with an eye to achieving the best possible result for the team. It is possible that, when it comes time to overtake his teammate, Norris takes extra care to ensure that he’s able to make it stick, particularly after a bold overtake attempt at the Canadian Grand Prix saw him crash out of the race.

And when it comes to Verstappen, Norris has had plenty of challenging run-ins, with the 2024 United States Grand Prix serving as a major example. Norris attempted to overtake Verstappen in that event, only to net himself a five-second penalty for running off the track as Verstappen pushed him wide.

A more decisive approach to overtaking, though, is key in a sport like Formula 1, particularly as the divergences between team performances have converged at the end of this regulatory era. McLaren may often have the quickest car on track, but its speed hasn’t ruled out strong challenges from the competition.

If Norris is looking to reassert his grip on this title fight, Schumacher believes his overtaking ability will remain the key.

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