-
Laurence Edmondson
MEXICO CITY — Prior to the Mexican Grand Prix, it was hard to make a convincing argument that Lando Norris was the favorite for this year’s Formula 1 drivers’ title. The British driver was second in the standings off the back of two podiums, but was being rapidly caught by an on-form Max Verstappen in third place and was still 14 points adrift of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in the lead.
The momentum was with Verstappen, the math was with Piastri. The argument for Norris winning the title fell somewhere in between.
He couldn’t be ruled out, but after five races without a grand prix victory, he was in need of a top-drawer performance to light the blue-touch paper. He needed a weekend to silence his doubters, a weekend to rebuild his midseason momentum, and perhaps even a weekend to convince himself that the dream was still possible.
That weekend came in Mexico, and with it he reclaimed the lead in the championship by a single point from Piastri while taking a significant confidence boost ahead of the final four rounds of the 2025 season.
Why was Norris so good in Mexico?
Norris described the Mexican Grand Prix as his “best performance through a whole weekend” of his career. Despite missing first practice on Friday to allow Mexican driver Pato O’Ward some seat time, he looked utterly convincing right up until he crossed the line for his sixth victory of the season.
After topping final practice by more than 0.3 seconds, Norris took pole position by 0.262 seconds from Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and held a 0.588 seconds advantage over Piastri down in seventh place. It was Norris’ biggest margin over his teammate in qualifying this season, and follows a growing trend in which he is able to access performance from the McLaren that Piastri cannot.
In Sunday’s race, Norris’ advantage over his rivals was even bigger. He crossed the line 30 seconds clear of Leclerc in second place — the biggest winning margin of any driver this season — and led every lap of the grand prix. So what made him so quick in Mexico?
“It’s a good question,” Norris said with a smile on Sunday evening. “I mean, the car is just quick, you know? It has been the whole season, but clearly it’s still difficult to drive at times, but I think when you just find that sweet spot, it can be down the road and make your life a bit easier.
“So, I don’t know. It’s hard to say, like, what’s better about mine than the others, but I’ve just had a bit more grip, and that’s normally always the easiest answer.”
Since McLaren resumed its pursuit of regular grand prix victories in the early part of the 2024 season, Norris has had occasional weekends where he’s looked untouchable. Although the circuits at which Norris has excelled have not always matched up from last season to this season, team principal Andrea Stella believes low-grip conditions provide the common thread.
“I think when we look at Lando in recent years, we have seen weekends with this level of dominance also in some other venues,” Stella said. “Like last year, I think we saw it in Zandvoort and [last year] we saw it in Singapore. So it’s not the first time I think that Lando exhibits performances at this level.
“Here he was very convincing. I think he was just essentially fastest in every single session and he was able to capitalize on the performance and the strength of the car. In a way, these special low-grip conditions, they fit perfectly. It’s a natural way of extracting lap time, which is almost like the opposite to Oscar’s characteristics.”
In Mexico City, the low-grip conditions are a symptom of the thin air at 7,350 feet above sea level. Even when fitted with their biggest wings, F1 cars still produce less downforce in Mexico than they do running their skinniest wings in Monza, while tires have a propensity to overheat due to the lack of oxygen in the air.
“When you have conditions like here with hot tarmac and sliding tires, the way in which you generate lap time is a way that, I would say, comes relatively naturally for Lando and less naturally for Oscar,” Stella added. “Lando is the driver [you want] when you are going on low grip, end of the stint, when the tires are quite worn and used, the grip is low. It’s where we see Lando go green sector, green sector, green sector.
“Oscar, instead, is more of a driver of high grip. That’s where he can exploit his incredible talent.”
What’s going wrong for Piastri?
Since Norris retired from the Dutch Grand Prix with an oil leak six races ago, he has turned a 34-point deficit to Piastri into a one-point advantage after Mexico. The 35-point swing pales in comparison to Verstappen’s 58-point swing against Piastri over the same period, but Norris has managed to do it driving the same machinery as the Australian.
Piastri’s corresponding slump in form looked more desperate than ever after qualifying in Mexico, with the McLaren driver describing his lack of performance as “a mystery.” Following the session, his engineers delved deeper into the lost lap time, and although he could only finish fifth, found some answers for Piastri to take into the final races.
“Yesterday after qualifying, we reviewed with Oscar extensively from a data, comment and video point of view,” Stella said. “I think we extracted some important information in terms of how the car needs to be driven in these special low-grip conditions that we are facing here in Mexico.
“To some extent it was similar to Austin as well, and it looks like in these conditions, you have to drive the car in a way that adapts to the fact that the car slides a lot and can slide and produce lap time, and this is not necessarily the way in which Oscar feels naturally that he is producing lap time. So we identified a few things that we could do with the car and a few things that he could do with the driving.”
Setup changes are not permitted between qualifying and the race, but Stella said Piastri was able to adapt his driving style in Sunday’s race, which helped him move from ninth after the first lap to fifth at the finish.
“I think Oscar should be very proud of himself, of how he has handled the transition from yesterday to today,” Stella added. “We could see in the race that he was applying this and he definitely had a more competitive pace than yesterday.
“It’s a bit of a shame that he was not in condition to fully use this pace because we could not find a way to get him out of traffic, and he spent the entire race looking at the gearbox of the car ahead, but it’s important for Oscar that we go through this kind of experience in which we learn new tools to add to the toolbox. Because that’s how you become the most complete version of a Formula 1 driver.”
Is Norris now the favourite for the title?
When it comes to the final races of a close championship battle, drivers are always keen to shirk the tag of being the “favorite.” Although it makes zero difference to the outcome at the final race, it arguably comes with added pressure that they’d rather pile on their rivals.
A case can be made for each of the three title protagonists finishing the season as champion, but following Sunday’s victory, the spotlight was back on Norris.
“Am I favorite for the championship? I mean, who knows?” he said on Sunday evening. “It’s still pretty tight between us. Max has still caught me over the last, what, six, seven weekends. So, yeah, write what you want. It’s your decision.
“But, you know, I’ve been keeping my head down, keeping focus, doing my own thing, and that’s all you can do. Every weekend’s new, every weekend’s different, and there’s still a long way to go.”
0:42
Max Verstappen reacts to Mexico City GP third place
Max Verstappen, winner Lando Norris and Ollie Bearman share their thoughts after the Mexico City GP.
As has been the case all year, Verstappen cannot be ruled out of the championship until the math makes it impossible for him to win. His third-place finish in Mexico, which would likely have been second but for a late Virtual Safety Car, was arguably on a par with Norris’ performance out in front.
The 15 points he received means he has closed the gap to the top of the standings from 40 points to Piastri to 36 points to Norris, but that came as little consolation in an otherwise difficult weekend for the reigning champion on track.
“I mean, I lost 10 [points] to Lando, if you look at it like that,” Verstappen said when asked if he took hope from his shrinking gap to first place. “I said before the weekend, everything needs to go perfect to win. And this weekend didn’t go perfect. So that’s your answer.
“I think it’s going to be tough, but let’s see what we can do in other tracks. I hope, of course, we won’t experience a weekend like this again, but it still shows that we’re not quick in every scenario. And that’s what we need to understand a bit better.”
For McLaren, Mexico helped stem the tide of Verstappen’s recent charge in the standings. For the first time in five races, Verstappen was beaten by one of the McLarens — a stat that would not have sounded impressive at the start of the season, but one that gives Stella renewed hope that one of his drivers will take the title.
“The confidence in terms of the championship is increased,” he said on Sunday night. “It’s increased because we have proven that we have a car that can win races and, in some conditions, can dominate races. This is the most important factor to put Lando and Oscar in condition to pursue the drivers’ championship.
“I don’t think it’s about mathematics. I think it’s about competitiveness, and it was important to confirm this competitiveness. And I think even when it comes to Oscar, even if he lost some points to Verstappen, I think Oscar has got a lot of learning from this weekend.
“And that’s sort of an investment that you make to make sure that you are competitive in every condition in the final part of the season. So, overall, we came out of this weekend encouraged and optimistic for the final part of the season.”
Leave a Reply