Once again, Formula 1 fans are leaving a race weekend with Lando Norris the topic for all of the wrong reasons after the McLaren driver cost himself valuable points once again at the F1 2025 Bahrain GP; so it’s finally time for him to get it together or lose the title.
Since the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola in May 2024, there has been question marks surrounding the Brit’s ability to handle pressure and whether he can cut it at the sharp end of the grid with the very elite.
A plethora of unforced errors throughout that season against Red Bull’s Max Verstappen allowed the Dutchman to escape with the title in a car that finished third in the constructors’ championship.
It felt as though whenever Norris had the chance to put a dent into the points deficit between them, he simply lacked the composure and decisiveness take advantage of those moments.
For example, he went too long in his pit box at the British GP and it ultimately allowed Lewis Hamilton to undercut him for the lead and victory of the race with Verstappen in third; whilst another example came a couple of weeks later at the Belgian GP.
Norris qualified six places ahead of his title rival at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, but a poor start saw that gap evaporated to one position, before strategy allowed Red Bull to get their man ahead of the McLaren – a position the four-time champion held until the end of 44 laps.
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More examples followed in races in Monaco, Canada, Spain, Hungary, Italy, the United States, and finally Brazil; when he slid wide at a safety car restart and dropped down to seventh as Verstappen took an astonishing win.
The question lingered for the vast majority of the season: How many times would Norris and McLaren fail to take advantage of Red Bull’s poor pace and let the Dutchman off the hook?
To be fair to Norris, he at least wasn’t expecting to be competing for the title that season and had to learn the pressure of racing at the front against his rival on the job, in a field with 11 drivers who were Grand Prix winners.
Errors were to be expected, and did appear, and at the F1 2024 Abu Dhabi GP it finally seemed as though the 25-year-old understood what he needs to do to put a mature and clinical performance together to win as he dominated affairs in Yas Marina… Until this season.
With the same errors present, it’s now imperative for Norris to get it together or he will lose F1 2025 title as time starts to run out with races ticking down. But why is it so important now?
A string of Norris errors through just four rounds
Now four races into the 2025 Formula 1 season, there has been at least one mistake from Norris across every single Grand Prix weekend and it’s already beginning to cost him valuable points – with the exception of the season opener.
In Melbourne, for the Australian GP, when the rain began to fall, both McLaren cars lost control and ran wide at Turn 14. Norris managed to get away with it and kept his car just about on the road after a trip across the grass, whilst Piastri went spinning off.
Ironically, what spared him from the same fate as the Australian in the sister car is that Norris was slower through the Stewart corner; meaning he didn’t manage to lose the rear quite as much when they ran wide – arguably winning him the race in the end.
However, as he dove into the pits, the error had allowed Verstappen to close right up. The world champion, who boxed a lap or two later, then proved to be far faster as he hounded Norris down to the flag; but didn’t quite have enough as the Brit held on.
It was the first hiccup, but with extreme weather conditions and it being the first time he was pushing the MCL39 over a full race distance and that he ultimately won, it was minor to look the other way and let him off.
But fast forward to China and things began to unravel once again at the Shanghai International Circuit when he struggled for speed through Sprint Qualifying and found himself sixth on the grid with Piastri and Verstappen in second and third.
A bad day at the office, shrug it off and go again later on. However, on Lap 1 of the Sprint Race he out-braked himself and had to lock-up to avoid rear-ending cars ahead, dropping him down to ninth and out of the points.
Eventually, he picked off Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin after a long battle but saw himself on the losing end of a five and six-point deficit to the early prospective title rivals he faced.
He then lined up third on the grid for the Grand Prix after being beaten to the punch by Russell and Piastri, missing out by 0.152 and thus handed the control of the race to his teammate, who duly won.
Next was Japan, where he made mistakes through the first sector of his final Q3 run and allowed Verstappen to take pole on a weekend when track position was key due to the one DRS zone and low tyre degradation and more points escaped him.
Which brings us onto the F1 2025 Bahrain GP when a poor lap in qualifying dropped him to sixth on the grid with Piastri on pole. Then came a race-compromising five-second penalty for driving too far forwards in his grid box, completely unforced.
That allowed Russell to finish ahead of the McLaren by just seven tenths of a second at the flag as Piastri cruised to the win by a cool 14.499 seconds on Sunday, April 13.
Oscar Piastri is proving he will punish Norris for his errors
All in all, these errors have cost Norris somewhere between 21 and 28 points through four rounds, which is simply not a margin he can afford in what seems to be an exclusive two-car fight for the title.
Worryingly too, Piastri is already starting to punish him for the errors by taking wins in China and Bahrain; and had McLaren swapped the cars around in Japan too then he might have also won there.
The cool head of the Aussie means he is now putting his weekends together nicely and he’s taken a step-up in terms of race pace too, hanging onto Norris’ gearbox or being safely ahead through all of the weekends.
As things stand, the more points the championship leader leaves on the table, the more likely it seems that Piastri will be inheriting them. Suddenly that championship lead doesn’t seem as safe anymore.
Ferrari and Mercedes are closing in on McLaren
Following Formula 1 testing and pace displayed in the F1 2025 Australian GP, as McLaren effortlessly dropped Verstappen in third, many expected this campaign to be a relatively dull affair.
However, it’s time to pause that following Bahrain. Russell has now managed to get his Mercedes ahead of the McLarens twice, Verstappen has a pole and Hamilton proved they can be beaten (albeit in the Sprint events).
Are Mercedes and Ferrari closer than first expected? The Silver Arrows managed to hang onto Piastri quite well at the Bahrain International Circuit and Charles Leclerc was never a million miles behind Russell either.
Ferrari’s first wave of upgrades seem successful and Mercedes are yet to bring a major update, and with McLaren battling rear-end instability on their car, could that allow their competitors a chance to close up as they figure out a solution?
If the answer is yes, then there’s only more of an emphasis for it’s time for Norris to get it together or dealing with the reality that he will lose F1 2025 title with more cars coming into the picture.
