MONZA, Italy — Lando Norris insisted he does not need Oscar Piastri to encounter bad luck of his own to win the Formula 1 title, while acknowledging McLaren’s dominant position complicates his hopes of a miracle championship turnaround.
Norris’ hopes of a maiden F1 championship were dealt a major blow when his McLaren car ground to a halt as he trailed teammate Piastri at the end of last wekeend’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Piastri now leads by 34 points — an advantage only two drivers have ever failed to convert into the title under the current points system — with nine races left.
Rather than wish a similar moment to happen for Piastri, Norris said he just needs to maximise every result until the end of the season.
When asked if he is hoping to see a similar slice of bad luck befall his teammate, he said: “No, because in the end, if he’s done a better job, I give credit to him and I say he’s done a better job. That’s just how I am.
“I don’t wish it, I just wish that I can find that last little bit, that I can still win the championship without anything happening and that’s the way I wish to do it.
“It would certainly make my life easier if there were some more drivers in between every now … the thing is, we’re so dominant as a team, that almost makes my life harder, so that’s really the most frustrating part of it all.
“I still like to think may the best man win and if that’s the case at the end of the season, then I’ll respect that.”
He added: “I can literally only look ahead to the next few races and try and do more than I’ve ever done. Yeah, that’s it, if I lose the championship by those points, then I just have to keep my chin up, my head held high and try and do it again next year.
“You know I can’t dwell on those moments too much, it’s not anyone’s direct fault, even if it was, I just have to take my chin and move on, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”
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To put the lead into perspective, Piastri could finish second behind Norris at the next five races before he lost the lead.
McLaren has emerged as the dominant force in F1 this year and were on course for a fifth straight one-two finish before Norris’ dramatic retirement last week. The Englishman said that is a double-edged sword in his current situation.
“It would certainly make my life easier if there were some more drivers in between [us] every now and then … the thing is, we’re so dominant as a team, that almost makes my life harder, so that’s really the most frustrating part of it all.
“I still like to think may the best man win and if that’s the case at the end of the season, then I’ll respect that.”
Norris revealed McLaren CEO Zak Brown and team boss Andrea Stella both apologized to him after Sunday’s retirement, but that he held no feelings of bitterness about what happened.
“It just something that happens. It’s not Andrea’s fault, it’s not Zak’s fault,” he added.
“We look back on, I think it was 60 something races without a technical failure, without any issues, I think that’s a record for ourselves, I don’t know if it’s a record in Formula 1, but it’s something we’re pretty proud about.
“So for that to happen now, that’s just being unlucky, you know, it wasn’t a bad job by anyone, it was just life — various things coming together and then just being unlucky.
“I don’t know what I’m going to say in those moments. And I don’t really know what they want to say either … they apologise because they feel like they’ve let me down, the same as I apologise when I feel like I’ve let them down, otherwise … it’s life, like you just can’t do anything about it.”
