A fourth spot in the rankings for a guy just nine points back in a title fight seems odd. But if you've seen some of the ways things can quickly come unraveled for Lando Norris, it's not the biggest shock in the world.
Norris is an incredibly gifted driver who very well could beat Oscar Piastri in the drivers' championship. But if you ask 100 fans who is more liable to make errors, you'd be hard-pressed to find one to not say Norris.
A handful of mistakes are the reason why Norris currently trails his teammate 284-275. And he really needs to clean those up if he wants to capture that championship -- a championship that might be the end of a short window for McLaren if they can't produce the same success in 2026's new regulations.
Lando Norris' stats
Standings Position: 2nd
Points: 275
Best Finish: 1st (5 times)
Best Qualifying Position: 1st (4 times)
Head-to-head race finishes (vs. Piastri): 7-7
Head-to-head qualifying: 6-8
Head-to-head points: 275-284
A few splotches in Norris' 2025 campaign keeping him from the lead
In F1, sometimes narratives carry way too much weight within the fan/journalist community. Some errors stick with drivers and teams for several years after they happen -- sometimes in a mean-spirited way, sometimes just for memes and sometimes it's just laziness and easier to label someone for one race or set of races in their long racing career.
Norris can definitely be an example of this sometimes. We've seen some expert drives from him (more on that soon) despite him losing out to Verstappen in 2024 and currently trailing Piastri. But he has not escaped his error-prone ways for quite long enough to wipe it all way.
The biggest, of course, came in the Canadian Grand Prix, one of the few times this season where McLaren didn't have race-winning pace. In a competition for fourth place, Norris drove into the back of Piastri in a move that was never, ever one. Norris DNFed and Piastri was lucky enough to continue on in P4.
What likely would've been a two-point swing one way or the other, became a 12-point advantage for Piastri.
In the Middle East stretch of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Norris' qualifying form fell to the wayside. In Bahrain, it was a P6 after overcooking it multiple times, and while he was able to end up on the podium, he couldn't get past a stout George Russell defense for P2. Piastri was 16 seconds up the road. And then it was P10 after a session-ending crash in Jeddah, where he recovered to P4, but Piastri triumphed again.
In Belgium, Norris may have had a chance to chase down Piastri for a late comeback win, but he kept making mistakes while on the charge to him and ran out of time. In a less severe mistake, Norris had a terrible start at the Hungaroring, but was able to win anyway.
Piastri has made a few errors, but not nearly as many as Norris.
Norris still able to put together mighty drives
But let's not leave out where Norris has succeeded. As just mentioned, Norris faltered back to P5 early in Hungary, but he played the tire game (and clean air game) perfectly to score the win.
Norris faced immense pressure from Piastri all day long in Austria, but he never cracked (yes, he did almost drive off the road at one point...) and took the win from pole.
And in Australia, Norris dealt very well with changing conditions all day long. Even when heavy rain came out of nowhere, Norris was able to keep his car moving and in the lead whereas Piastri was almost beached in the grass. On a late restart, Verstappen got close, but Norris had enough for the opening win.
All this to say, Norris has the ability. Despite a lack many dominant wins and some errors to his name even when does win, he has experience and driving ability to win a title.
But he also clearly has some demons to face if he wants to beat Piastri in these final 10 go-arounds.