Fewest mistakes takes the F1 title? The Piastri-Norris errors in 2025 so far

As Formula 1’s calendar has ballooned over the past couple of decades, it’s a bit easier to get away with an off-weekend – nonetheless, championship credentials are still awarded to those who make the least mistakes.

With just nine points between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris at this stage in the season, the final 10 rounds effectively work as a shootout. Thus, each error carries a bit more weight; it could be as simple as a lock-up in an all-or-nothing qualifying lap, or an unnecessarily race-day clash – either way, the aftermath could be particularly damaging to either championship charge.

Neither driver has been flawless, but every championship challenge faces a few hurdles to overcome. Even Max Verstappen’s 2023 stranglehold on the top step of the podium came under threat occasionally through the year. We’ve decided to gather the bigger blunders from McLaren’s title protagonists so far as a recap of 2025’s opening 14 races. This list will undoubtedly get longer as the competition ratchets up.

Australia: Both drivers off in downpour, but Piastri comes off worse

As the Albert Park track surface dried following a frenetic series of opening laps, the McLaren MCL39s offered their first demonstrations of the car’s superior tyre preservation abilities versus the Red Bull RB21. This effectively ensured that, had the race continued in that vein and progressed linearly to full-dry conditions, it would be a two-horse race between Norris and Piastri – particularly after Verstappen went off on lap 17 to concede second place.

Indeed, Piastri put the magnets on and stuck to Norris’ tail, albeit with a brief pause to that duel when the home hero fluffed his lines slightly at Turn 6 and had to catch up after losing a smidgen of time. The sudden mid-race barrage of rain was the true disruptor in 2025’s early battle for supremacy, with the worst of the weather appearing towards the end of the lap. This caught both McLaren drivers out; Norris skipped across the gravel at Turn 12, and Piastri followed suit – but where the Briton got the car straightened out on his return to the circuit, the Australian lost the rear and slipped onto the grass on the opposite side of the corner.

Piastri initially looked as though he was stuck, but after about a minute he’d managed to free his car from the sodden lawn and got to the pits. This kept him in line for points, as he was able to recover to eighth as he’d just about stayed on the lead lap in 12th. It was all about the rejoin after the Turn 12 slip-and-slide; Norris got on the tarmac sooner and thus could gather the grip, while Piastri had about the width of the circuit to restabilise – which wasn’t quite enough space.

China: Norris makes sprint blunder, miscues in qualifying

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

A week later, Piastri was on fine form and punched in a dominant victory on the grand prix Sunday – although Lewis Hamilton had taken the plaudits for the sprint win; Piastri didn’t quite ‘maximise’ in sprint quali, but was 0.08s shy of Hamilton’s lap. Norris, however, was almost another half-second off as he haemorrhaged time through the longer-radius corners to start sixth.

Perhaps in too much of a hurry to make up ground, Norris then erred in defining his battle lines against George Russell and went wide at Turn 4 to let Yuki Tsunoda, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and Fernando Alonso through. Norris re-passed Alonso to rescue a point as Piastri passed Verstappen to clinch second.

Norris had another bite at the cherry in qualifying for the grand prix but, despite headlining Q1 and Q2, was unable to improve on his final Q3 effort and bailed on his lap. This left his time exposed to Russell’s out-of-the-blue run at the end of qualifying, as the Mercedes joined Piastri on the front row. Norris rounded his countryman at the start of the race to make up ground, but Piastri was unreachable.

Bahrain: Lando’s hopes of glory are smothered in quali

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Clive Mason/Getty Images

A sole point to the good over Verstappen in the early championship reckoning, Norris needed to shake off his Japan defeat to the Dutchman (Verstappen’s brilliance rather than any McLaren mistakes having decided the Suzuka bout) with a clean Bahrain weekend to assert himself over Piastri. But, as the season’s narrative has since decreed, Verstappen has never been as close – and Red Bull was distinctly off-colour in Bahrain.

Prime opportunity for Norris to gather a tasty haul of points then, right? You’d think so, but qualifying was a spectacular swing and a miss – the Briton went too deep into Turn 1 and lost two tenths, and ceded more time on his exit out of Turn 10. While Piastri claimed pole, Norris qualified sixth, behind Russell, Charles Leclerc, Antonelli, and Pierre Gasly.

Despite starting well to get up to third, Norris was pinged for lining up outside of his grid slot and earned a penalty, and then got drawn into scraps with the Ferraris despite a clear car advantage. He finished third, but it wasn’t a particularly good weekend.

Saudi Arabia: Norris loses championship lead after Q3 shunt

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images

The early errors piled up for Norris, and Saudi Arabia proved to be equally cruel. After headlining Q2, Norris pushed too hard at the start of Q3 and slammed his MCL39 into the barriers at the Turns 4-5-6 segment of the Jeddah rollercoaster. This set him 10th on the grid, and ensured he’d need to enact another recovery.

Norris didn’t quite make it to the podium placings. He profited from the lap 1 clash between Gasly and Tsunoda, but found it difficult to break down Carlos Sainz and Hamilton through the early tours – stunting progress which ended with finishing fourth behind Leclerc.

In the meantime, Piastri took the win – ensuring that the Australian left Saudi Arabia with a 10-point championship lead.

Miami: Have-a-go Lando’s win chances fade on first lap

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

In truth, both drivers slipped up slightly in Miami. Norris took the sprint win from Piastri in fortuitous circumstances (safety car timings), and got closest to Verstappen in qualifying as the Dutchman stitched together another Saturday tour of wonder. Piastri, meanwhile, was only able to get fourth on the grid.

Norris attempted to profit from Verstappen’s Turn 1 lock-up, but found himself between hell and high water as the Red Bull oversteered and ended up skating across the run-off to fall down to sixth. Piastri eventually caught and passed Verstappen at the start of the 14th lap, as the polesitter perhaps tried too hard in defence.

In the meantime, Norris had picked his way through Alex Albon and the two Mercedes drivers to catch Verstappen, but found himself again having to contend with a stout defence from the car ahead. An attempt at an outside move at Turn 11 didn’t pay off, and Norris’ later dive at the same corner ended with him conceding the position as both drivers went off the road. A third attempt finally worked for Norris on lap 18, but Piastri was already nine seconds up the road.

Imola: Piastri defends the wrong line at Tamburello

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Lars Baron / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

Norris didn’t have a particularly good weekend at Imola, but managed to at least drag a second-place finish out of it. Rather, Piastri had it worse at the Emilia Romagna race as he failed to make the most of pole position and a relatively short run to the first braking zone.

Piastri got the better start, but was fretting about a potential dive from Russell down the inside at the Tamburello chicane. Thus, the championship leader moved over to the left to cover that off – but hadn’t counted on Verstappen filling the space on his right and bleeding off the brakes to make an outside-to-inside pass work out.

This changed the shape of the race, and Norris later got past Piastri after stopping under the late-race safety car; Piastri stayed out and hoped to benefit from track position, but couldn’t deal with his team-mate’s fresher tyres.

Canada: Papaya rules turn sour as Norris hits Piastri

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

After seemingly getting his mojo back with a win at Monaco, Norris fluffed the start slightly at Barcelona – but recovered to second as Piastri’s lead appeared unassailable. Yet, Canada presented arguably his biggest blunder so far – Norris committed F1’s cardinal sin and hit his team-mate.

It can all be traced back to qualifying, as McLaren endured a sudden loss in form over the Montreal weekend. Mercedes and Red Bull were the on-song teams at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve; Piastri qualified third, but was gazumped by Antonelli at Turn 3 to lose track position for a podium place. Norris, by comparison, had looked solid early on in qualifying but hit the peak of his powers in Q2 and only qualified seventh.

While Norris eventually got up to fifth, he was stuck in a small DRS express train as Antonelli was attempting to fend Piastri off. After a few nibbles at his team-mate when Antonelli broke into a one-second-plus advantage over the #81 car, Norris figured that discretion was the better part of valour in his wafts to the outside at the final chicane.

A more concerted effort began on the 66th lap as Norris bundled past at the hairpin, but didn’t maintain the momentum up the back straight and lost ground again. His frustration at failing to get the overtake done turned into rashness and he attempted to stuff his car down the inside along the start-finish straight – into a gap that was rapidly closing. The two made contact, and Norris’ damage was terminal. He took the blame for it immediately, diffusing any tensions, but Norris also took much in the way of heat.

Great Britain: Piastri’s safety car penalty gives Norris win

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Whether one considers Piastri’s British GP penalty fair or harsh, it matters not; either way, it produced a self-inflicted loss of the lead. Both Piastri and Norris were beaten by Verstappen in qualifying, but the four-time champion struggled to contain the pair in the conditions. Piastri passed Verstappen, who then fell off the road when under scrutiny from Norris – but reclaimed second when McLaren left Norris out a lap longer on old inters as the rain intensified.

Piastri was perhaps guilty of over-compressing the field on the Hangar Straight during the first restart, as both Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg almost came to blows in taking evasive action. Yet, Piastri was later pinged for doing it again on the second restart; the safety car having been called upon for a second time when Antonelli was punted into the wall at Copse by Isack Hadjar.

The leaden-footedness of Piastri on the brakes in low visibility rankled with the stewards, and slapped the race leader with a 10-second penalty. Norris, who moved up to second thanks to Verstappen’s slide off the road about 20 seconds after Piastri’s moment on the brakes, profited from his team-mate’s misfortune.

Belgium: Both drivers make the mistake of starting on pole

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Michael Potts / Motorsport Images

Facetious, yes, but both Piastri and Norris proved why pole was hardly the place to be when starting the two races at Spa-Francorchamps. Piastri took pole for the sprint and was then brushed aside by a low-drag Verstappen along the Kemmel Straight, and the Australian then stored that encounter for the grand prix when Norris was fastest in qualifying.

Norris felt that he was suffering from clipping on the run out of Raidillon, while Piastri followed his team-mate up the hill and then gunned the throttle to ensure he was ahead before Les Combes. Although Norris tried to come back at his team-mate by opting for a hard-tyre stint versus Piastri’s mediums, the Briton then made a handful of unforced errors – one at Pouhon, two at La Source – to cost precious time in the intra-team battle for victory.

Hungary: Norris’ poor start presents winning opportunity

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari leads at the start

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

It’s safe to say that, off the line, Norris can be a bit hit or miss. One of those misses came at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix where, when picking a line, Norris opted for the inside and then found his path occupied by the duelling Piastri and Leclerc ahead. This offered Russell and Alonso a path to manoeuvre their way past the Briton.

With nothing much to lose, Norris decided to go long on his opening set of tyres and switched to a one-stop – despite most of the frontrunners running to a two-stopper given the expected degradation at a rear-limited circuit. It was a gamble, but the track position eventually paid off; Piastri had to do the chasing to close his team-mate down.

But Norris’ solid oeuvre of lap times across both compounds, where he was very consistently in the 1m20s on the hard, kept him in the game. He’d made a mistake, but it was something of a serendipitous setback.