Ralf Schumacher has never been shy with an opinion, and ahead of Singapore he’s found the soft spot he believes could decide this title fight: Lando Norris’ passing game.
In a season framed by McLaren’s resurgence and Max Verstappen hunting from just behind, Schumacher’s take is blunt. In his view, Norris is a half-beat slower at committing to moves than both Oscar Piastri and Verstappen. In a year this tight, that hesitation can be fatal.
“Oscar hardly puts a wheel wrong and looks mentally a step ahead,” Schumacher told t-online, pointing to the Australian’s poise under pressure. That assessment came before Piastri’s Azerbaijan mess — qualifying and race both in the wall — but the broader picture, Schumacher argues, hasn’t changed. Piastri rebounded, still leads the standings, and continues to look like the cleaner, more decisive racer when it counts.
Norris, by contrast, has had flashpoints. The wheel-to-wheel skirmishes with Verstappen have been fierce and expensive, the 2024 United States GP penalty still echoing through their battles. The intra-team calculus doesn’t make life easier: McLaren’s “papaya rules” are clear about keeping it tidy between teammates. After Norris’ bold dive in Canada ended poorly, you can see why he sometimes waits the extra corner, checks the mirrors again, and lives to fight the next DRS zone. But waiting comes at a cost.
That’s Schumacher’s core critique. “He sometimes needs two or three bites at it,” he says, arguing that Norris allows opportunities to cool down when Piastri or Verstappen would twist the knife. Layer in Norris’ own admissions that the mental side can ebb and flow — along with the odd qualifying wobble — and the narrative is obvious: the raw speed is there; the killer blow isn’t always.
None of this discounts Norris’ ceiling. He opened the year with a statement in Melbourne and has carried McLaren’s title charge in stretches. But where Piastri has visibly patched last season’s weak spots — race pace chief among them — Norris’ areas for growth remain exactly where peak title fights are won: the snap decision, the late-brake lunge, the “no, after you” turned “actually, now.”
It’s also why Verstappen is still very much in this. Red Bull’s triple champion is too savvy not to notice when a rival blinks, and he’s been methodically trimming the gap whenever McLaren blink. With the field compressed at the end of this rules cycle, track position matters more than ever; clean air is king, and dithering in dirty air is a tax you can’t pay for long.
The McLaren dynamic is fascinating because the car is frequently the quickest thing out there, but not so dominant that the team can afford caution between its drivers. Piastri has leaned into that reality with a calm, almost cold efficiency. He breaks DRS, covers the undercut, and makes the pass stick early. Norris often gets there, too — just not always at the first invitation.
Schumacher’s comments also came with a reminder about momentum. When Norris suffered that Zandvoort power unit failure, he needed the pendulum to swing back via a Piastri slip. Azerbaijan delivered a window — Piastri’s worst weekend of the year — and Norris couldn’t turn it into decisive damage. Not a catastrophe, but another day where the decisive pass, the decisive call, didn’t quite land.
The counterpoint is obvious: McLaren’s internal rules shape the fight, recent scars linger, and overtaking has never been trickier than it is with cars so evenly matched. But the title doesn’t adjust for context. It rewards ruthlessness.
Singapore, then, is a purist’s test. Streets that punish indecision, traction zones that tempt and trap, strategy windows that open for a lap and then slam shut. If Norris wants to flip this narrative — and the championship momentum with it — he’ll have to do the thing Schumacher says he doesn’t do enough: pull the pin, once, cleanly, decisively.
Piastri looks comfortable. Verstappen looks dangerous. Norris looks fast. The champion, though, will be the one who takes the pass when it’s there and doesn’t ask a second time.
