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F1 history shows hope for Norris despite widening gap to McLaren teammate Piastri

Originally posted on HITC | By David Comerford | Last updated Sep 3, 2025 10:58 AM ET

Lando Norris is now 34 points behind Oscar Piastri in the title race after retiring from the Dutch Grand Prix. The gap between the McLaren teammates widened just as Norris looked set to close it.

Norris had been running second at Zandvoort when an oil leak forced him out of the race. Instead of gaining seven points, he lost 25 to Piastri, who went on to win and extend his lead.

There are still nine races left in 2025, plus three Sprints. That gives Norris a possible 249 points still up for grabs, but with Piastri’s advantage growing, he has little room for mistakes.

Ralf Schumacher believes that while Norris now has nothing to lose from this point forward, failing to secure the title would be much harder for Piastri to take.

Norris has little margin left

Piastri’s consistency has given him a clear edge so far. He has eight wins and five runner-up finishes in a season where his lowest result was fifth place in Miami. His last retirement came back at Jeddah in Round 3.

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Norris will need more than just luck to catch up—he’ll need a big swing in performance or reliability issues on Piastri’s side if he hopes to turn things around with nine races remaining.

How Sebastian Vettel’s 2012 comeback can inspire Lando Norris

It’s tough to compare comebacks across different periods because the points system has changed so many times. But history does offer some hope.

Back in 2022, The Race looked through the records and applied the current points system to older seasons, creating a standardised leaderboard. They found that James Hunt’s 1976 title win over Niki Lauda remains one of the most remarkable turnarounds in McLaren history.

RANK	DRIVER	YEAR	GAP
1	James Hunt	1976	97
2	Kimi Raikkonen	2007	72
3	John Surtees	1964	56
4	Ayrton Senna	1988	50
5	Jody Scheckter	1979	47
5	Nelson Piquet	1981	47
7	Max Verstappen	2022	46
8	Keke Rosberg	1982	45
9	Michael Schumacher	2003	45
10	Sebastian Vettel	2012	44

Kimi Raikkonen is another name who managed something similar in more recent times. He came out on top in a tight race that included Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton — both finishing just a single point behind him — and teammate Felipe Massa.

Norris also only needs to make up an average of 3.8 points per weekend between now and Abu Dhabi, so there is still hope despite how far back he sits right now.

Max Verstappen’s message to Lando Norris after Zandvoort setback

Lando Norris will have the freedom to take more risks as he tries to close the gap on Oscar Piastri. That could mean more bold strategy calls, similar to the one-stop plan that worked for him in Hungary when he was chasing from behind.

It’ll also be interesting to see how a bigger points gap changes how they race each other. Piastri knows that a retirement could eat into his lead, while another DNF for Norris might be enough to put the title out of reach.

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“You have to let it go and just accept it because it’s not your fault,” Verstappen said. “Sometimes it is harder when you crash yourself and you’re like ‘I threw this away’. Those ones are harder.”

Even Norris’ engineer sounded devastated after his retirement, so the British driver will have to pick up his side of the garage. After all, they too will be determined to win out over the Piastri camp.

This article first appeared on HITC and was syndicated with permission.

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