{"id":46392,"date":"2025-04-24T10:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T10:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/46392\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T10:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T10:46:14","slug":"do-the-opposing-mindsets-of-lando-norris-and-oscar-piastri-signify-strength-or-weakness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/46392\/","title":{"rendered":"Do the opposing mindsets of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri signify strength or weakness?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poker players have a word for Lando Norris<\/a>\u2019s response to adversity: \u201cleaky\u201d. In a game of bluff and counter-bluff, allowing emotions to manifest outwardly is certainly a disadvantage and a weakness.<\/p>\n

Is it also the case in a Formula 1 driver? There are those who would argue so, saying this is a brutal dog-eat-dog world of split-second decisions determined by self-interest, where the protagonists take risks which require supreme faith in their own abilities \u2013 no place for (ghastly word) \u2018snowflakes\u2019.<\/p>\n

So it has become fashionable to sneer at Norris\u2019s habitual self-flagellation. The ranks of critics who suggested he \u2018choked\u2019 towards the end of last season have swelled, and this constituency interprets his glum demeanour, unfiltered self-criticism and fidgety body language after recent grands prix as tantamount to capitulation in the world championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI make life pretty tough for myself,\u201d he said after last weekend\u2019s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the second race in a row where mistakes have cost him the championship lead. More significant to those scrutinising his mindset were Norris\u2019s slumped shoulders and kicked-puppy diction.<\/p>\n

While Norris is an outlier in a world where insecurities are generally concealed, his McLaren<\/a> team-mate occupies a space at the opposite end of the F1 driver paradigm. Oscar Piastri<\/a> is so manifestly laid back that sometimes you feel you ought to check his pulse.<\/p>\n

“People forget this quickly, but last year was only his second season, and now it\u2019s his third \u2013 he\u2019s very solid, very calm in his approach. I like that,” said Max Verstappen<\/a>\u00a0of Piastri after the Saudi race.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri, McLaren<\/p>\n

Photo by: Lars Baron – Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

“You can see it on track, too: he delivers when he has to, makes hardly any mistakes \u2013 and that\u2019s what you need when you want to fight for the title.”<\/p>\n

We will set aside for now the extent to which this was gamesmanship on Max\u2019s part, sharpening his psychological edge over Lando. Oscar\u2019s poker face is, to an extent, a carefully maintained construct \u2013 the way he sees it, he needs to channel his energy in a particular way to ensure his own peak performance\u2026<\/p>\n

The contrast between the two McLaren drivers is fascinating and a subject to which interviewers are repeatedly drawn, most recently in the run-up to the Saudi race where a German journalist asked Piastri if he had ever been emotional in the cockpit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a couple of times through my career,\u201d he replied, \u201cand, yeah, I think when they\u2019re negative emotions it does have a negative impact so that\u2019s why I try\u2026 it comes somewhat naturally, being calm and trying to stay relaxed, but there\u2019s a lot of conscious effort on that as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also positive emotions \u2013 after China, if you\u2019d had a camera on me and you could see my face, I was pretty damn excited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s probably more that you don\u2019t see under the helmet \u2013 but for me, that\u2019s just how I approach it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lando <\/p>\n

Lando Norris, McLaren<\/p>\n

Photo by: Peter Fox – Getty Images<\/p>\n

The contrast between Piastri\u2019s response to his spin in Melbourne and Norris\u2019s to his various misfortunes this season is stark. But does it really signify the binary and situation of strength and weakness?<\/p>\n

There is an element of nurture behind the tough-guy masks on show in the current F1 paddock. Verstappen, famously, was dumped on the roadside by his father after losing a kart race.<\/p>\n

Even those who champion schools of hard knocks might admit, even sotto voce, that there is little to celebrate about this.<\/p>\n

Piastri is managed by Mark Webber<\/a>, who had to take side jobs delivering pizzas and working as a woodcutter when his own racing career wavered for lack of finance in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

No wallflower, he: during his driving career Webber was well-known for moving his belongings into his team-mates\u2019 heads and taking up residence rent-free. As Nico Rosberg<\/a>\u2019s Williams<\/a> team-mate he soon had more or less the entire team referring to the increasingly infuriated occupant of the other garage as \u201cBritney\u201d.<\/p>\n

Little wonder Max, as a postscript to his praise of Oscar, cited Webber as a positive influence.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, 2nd position, is congratulated by Mark Webber in Parc Ferme<\/p>\n

Photo by: Steven Tee \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

“I think having Mark by his side helps him a lot,\u201d said the world champion. \u201cThat\u2019s great, because people learn from their own careers – that\u2019s what I had with my dad. And now Mark is guiding Oscar.”<\/p>\n

Confidence is naturally a performance prerequisite for any racing driver. But it\u2019s perhaps mistaken to read Norris\u2019s heart-on-sleeve moments as a sign of crumbling confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be pole, I want to win, I want to be perfect,\u201d he told Tom Clarkson on F1\u2019s official podcast this week, \u201cand I think I need to accept a little bit more that I\u2019m not going to be perfect, and I\u2019m making mistakes because I\u2019m trying to be perfect, rather than the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Ayrton Senna\u2019s faith in himself bordered on messianic, and yet even he \u2013 according to those close to him \u2013 later came to recognise that taking Alain Prost out at the beginning of the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix had crossed the boundaries of what was acceptable.<\/p>\n

Seasoned poker players might look at that brazen and outrageous act, along with some of Verstappen\u2019s actions under duress, as manifestations of \u2018tilt\u2019 \u2013 where, regardless of facial expression at the time, frustration prompts sub-optimal judgements.<\/p>\n

It would be a rare elite sportsperson who doesn\u2019t have demons. Most just save them for their autobiographies.<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Stuart Codling\n<\/p>\n

Formula 1\n<\/p>\n

Lando Norris\n<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri\n<\/p>\n

McLaren\n<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Poker players have a word for Lando Norris\u2019s response to adversity: \u201cleaky\u201d. In a game of bluff and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,16025,1711,1710,1712,16024,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-46392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-jeddah-street-circuit","12":"tag-lando-norris","13":"tag-mclaren","14":"tag-oscar-piastri","15":"tag-saudi-arabian-gp","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114392543121257305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}