Opinion

Is the 2025 F1 title fight now over? Our writers have their say

Dutch GP reactions: With Oscar Piastri now more than 30 points clear of Lando Norris in the standings, is the Briton’s title bid already slipping out of reach?

It’s hard to argue: after Zandvoort, Oscar Piastri has emerged as the clear favourite for the 2025 title. With another dominant performance converted into victory, he now leads the championship by 34 points — the biggest margin so far this year.

With such a cushion and only nine races to go, Piastri doesn’t need to win every weekend. Simply finishing right behind Lando Norris on most occasions would be enough to secure his first world championship in just his third F1 season.

But does that mean the title is already decided? Or can Norris still find a way to turn it around? Motorsport.com journalists share their views.

Everyone else seems to be giving up, Norris shouldn’t join them - Stuart Codling

The lack of energy in the paddock after the summer break has been something else. It’s as if the majority of people working in F1 have already written this season off and would rather have stayed on the beach.

Barely a press conference goes by without someone dragging the subject over from the here-and-now to 2026, like a picky individual continuously swiping through Tinder in the hope of a better offer around the corner.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Andrea Stella, McLaren

Photo by: Jayce Illman / Getty Images

With that in mind, I commend Lando Norris for saying he’ll “just go for it” over the remaining races of the season. What’s the worst that could happen?

Over the weekend, Mercedes’ Toto Wolff held court in an unusually candid group interview with our Dutch colleagues. In it he said one of his regrets was not letting his drivers ‘just race’ in late 2016, in the wake of Lewis Hamilton’s engine failure during the Malaysian GP.

You’ll remember at the time Lewis began to mutter darkly about being sabotaged and that added to the maelstrom of rancour swirling around Mercedes and its drivers. Toto reckons that, given the constructors’ championship was almost done and dusted (it was at the next round, and the drivers’ title was also heading Mercedes’ way (Nico Rosberg led Hamilton by 288 points to 265, with Daniel Ricciardo a distant third on 204), it would have saved a lot of angst and hand-wringing if he had just let his drivers off the leash.

So Norris should just do it, and team boss Andrea Stella should be less uptight about the ‘papaya rules’. After all, we’re not in a situation like 2007, where McLaren self-destructed and let Kimi Raikkonen snatch the silverware at the final round…

It's hard to see a way back - Fil Cleeren

Thus far the battle between Piastri and Norris has been finely poised as neither driver has genuinely been on top. A mistake here, a gust of wind there. Going into any given weekend it's almost impossible to predict which McLaren car will have the upper hand, which is what has made their title fight intriguing to follow despite the team's dominance.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images

That close battle is also the reason why I am finding it hard to see a way back for Norris. Thus far, he has been the least consistent of the two, slipping in more mistakes than Piastri who has been nearly faultless.

That is going to make it hard to recover an average of four points per weekend.

Barring any misfortune, the Australian has yet to give us any indication that he won't simply grab this opportunity with both hands. Assuming the pair will share most of the remaining race wins, that means Norris will pretty much need nine perfect weekends, something which he hasn't been able to deliver yet this season.

Norris must remain calm - Oleg Karpov

Norris’ immediate reaction after Zandvoort was to say: “I can just chill out about it and just go for it.” That was understandable — both the sentiment itself, and the fact he said it just minutes after retiring from the race. But by the following morning, he may well have reflected on it differently.

There was nothing he could do about what happened in Zandvoort. The gap is now what it is: 34 points. To overturn that, Norris would need to win five races in a row with Piastri finishing second each time. That simply won’t happen. Not with Piastri — he’s simply too good to allow it, and too level-headed to start playing it safe just to bring the title home. He knows that can just as easily backfire.

So, is the “just send it” approach the right one? On the surface, yes — it looks like his only option is to push harder, take more risks, and try to out-perform Piastri at every given track. But that can also be the recipe for disaster. Think of Sebastian Vettel in 2018: after crashing out at Hockenheim, he began forcing things and lost the championship far earlier than he should have. He probably would have lost it anyway as Ferrari’s form tailed off, but Norris doesn’t have that problem. He has the same machinery as his rival — and that remains a constant.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

There are still plenty of races left. Piastri may look unflappable, but all it takes is a small mistake — like his slip in Melbourne — or a technical failure for the gap to close again. Of course, Norris cannot rely on that. But if he pushes too hard, he risks throwing away his title chances before such an opportunity even arrives.

When Norris puts everything together, he can beat his team-mate. The challenge is to keep the same approach, without overreaching. Taking unnecessary risks now won’t bring him any closer to the title.

No, but it just got a lot harder – Ben Vinel

This is a long season, and a 34-point gap isn’t insurmountable by any means. But based on the McLaren drivers’ dynamic, there’s little reason to believe in Norris.

Such a large gap – over one grand prix victory – does not have to be extremely meaningful in a topsy-turvy season. Here, Norris is facing his own team-mate, and Piastri has displayed a level of consistency that no one but Max Verstappen has reached in recent years. Ever since the Australian came off worse in an off-track excursion at Albert Park, he’s been an unwavering force at the front of the field.

Meanwhile, Norris made a high-profile, costly mistake when he unnecessarily collided with the sister papaya car in Montreal, and also had a few missteps under pressure in Q3 – right when it mattered most.

If the 25-year-old Briton is to have a chance to win the title, he needs to be flawless over the remainder of the campaign. Only then might fate favour him, with a rare mistake by Piastri or a car failure balancing things out between the two drivers.

Piastri is not intrinsically faster than Norris. But Norris’ mind can make or break him.