Lando Norris didn’t mince words after the Belgian Grand Prix, admitting outright that his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri simply outperformed him at Spa-Francorchamps. Reflecting on a race where Piastri charged to a strong second place behind race winner Lewis Hamilton—now in his debut Ferrari season—Norris labeled his own fifth-place finish as a missed opportunity.
“I should have done better,” Norris said in the post-race debrief. “Oscar nailed it from start to finish. He deserved that podium more than I did today.” The Brit pointed to his qualifying slip-up, where he started from fourth but lost ground early, struggling to recover amid tire wear and a botched strategy call that left him chasing shadows.
Piastri, the unflappable Aussie, capitalized on a cleaner run, overtaking key rivals like Charles Leclerc and holding off a late surge from Max Verstappen. For McLaren, it was a mixed bag: Piastri’s result keeps them in the constructors’ hunt, but Norris knows he let points slip away in a tight 2025 title battle.
With the summer break looming, Norris vowed to reset. “It’s on me to step up. We’ve got the car—now it’s about execution.” As the grid evolves with Hamilton’s Ferrari switch and rookies like Oliver Bearman at Haas making waves, McLaren’s intra-team dynamic remains a subplot to watch.
