Norris vs. Piastri: Which driver has the upper hand for the F1 title right now?

Formula 1 enters the second half of the 2025 season this weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix to start a set of 12 highly anticipated races.

It'll be a second half with a drivers' title not even close to wrapped up for the first time since 2021.

The state of play for Norris, Piastri in F1's second half

McLaren clearly has the dominant car, as evidenced through its 238-point advantage in the constructors' championship. But Lando Norris has closed the gap on teammate Oscar Piastri with back-to-back wins in Austria and England.

Norris' victories pushed back on the growing narrative that he couldn't compete consistently against his less experienced teammate ... although Piastri fans would debate that because Norris probably won because of the Aussie's safety car penalty.

Nonetheless, Piastri leads Norris by just eight points coming into race #13 at Spa. If Norris manages a win and Piastri does any worse than second, Norris will all of a sudden take command in the championship.

So who has the upper hand on the coming circuits on the F1 calendar? Let's take a look, head-to-head in their two seasons running in equal cars.

Belgium - Spa-Francorchamps

Norris hasn't had very strong results at Spa, while Piastri was on the prowl at the very end of last year's race. Piastri's DNF was the fault of a turn one squeeze by Carlos Sainz.
Advantage: Piastri

Hungary - Hungaroring

Last year's Hungarian Grand Prix was massively controversial when Norris begrudgingly let Piastri past when Piastri lost the lead due to a pit stop miscalculation by McLaren. Both drivers have been very close to each other in both years, but Norris' better quali form at the track with little overtaking chances can pay dividends.
ADVANTAGE: Norris

Netherlands - Zandvoort

Norris had one of his infamous struggles on lap one in 2024, where he coughed up the lead, but he was able to take things back and fly away to a 22-second victory. 2023 was filled with wet-weather chaos that left strategy as a major player for good results.
ADVANTAGE: Norris

Italy - Monza

Last year's race at Monza saw Piastri make a shocking move to get by Norris. Piastri could very well have won, but the McLaren strategy wasn't the right one. What might be forgotten is the McLarens also made contact while racing here the year before, too, but this time Norris got by rookie Piastri. Piastri lost places after contact with Lewis Hamilton later on.
ADVANTAGE: Piastri

Azerbaijan - Baku

Norris' shocking qualifying effort last year put him on the back foot, so his mighty charge only got him to fourth. Meanwhile, Piastri sent a beauty of a move to pass Charles Leclerc and ultimately keep him behind for the win. McLaren was not particularly competitive in 2023.
ADVANTAGE: Piastri

Singapore - Marina Bay

Pretty cut and dry here: Norris was utterly dominant here in 2024 with a 20-second advantage on Verstappen in second and 40 seconds over Piastri in third. Norris was also in the conversation for a win in 2023 amid Sainz playing DRS games to stay ahead, while Piastri got stuck behind a crash in Q1 that ruined his weekend.
ADVANTAGE: Norris

United States - Circuit of the Americas

Norris was gifted pole in 2024 due to a late crash by George Russell, but had another brutal start and was sent into the runoff by a bold Verstappen send into turn one. He then lost a podium for a controversial penalty for getting past Verstappen off-track. All the while, Piastri was still six seconds back on track. Piastri posted the worst Q3 time in 2023 but was forced to retire due to technical issues from 6th. His sprint results have been relatively uninspiring as well. Norris' worst finish in these two years is better than Piastri's best.
ADVANTAGE: Norris

Mexico - Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez

A brutal qualifying in 2024 meant Piastri was out in Q1 and could only fight forward to 8th, while Norris came home second after Verstappen tried to wreck him multiple times. Norris was halted from improving in 2023 quali by yellow flags, so his 5th place finish was all the more impressive, including some classic overtakes to get there.
ADVANTAGE: Norris

Brazil - Interlagos

2024 was a messy one for both. Rain pushed Norris out of battling for the win one time, and then a horrifying restart later on made sure he missed the podium. Piastri was tagged with a penalty for an incident with Liam Lawson. Piastri was strongest in the 2024 sprint, but he played the team game and let Norris through to keep his vague title hopes alive. But that sprint has been the only time Piastri has scored more than four points in a single session here after struggles in Sao Paulo in 2023.
ADVANTAGE: Norris

Las Vegas - Vegas Strip Circuit

Las Vegas has not been kind to McLaren whatsoever. They both exited in Q1 in 2023, and Norris couldn't survive three laps due to a brutal crash in the cold conditions. Piastri managed a point despite a punctured tire at the hands of Lewis Hamilton. In 2024, despite McLaren being the dominant car most weekends at this point in the year, they were not competitive on pace. I'll just go on pure points here, where Norris holds an 8-7 lead (plus Norris beat Piastri by six seconds last season).
ADVANTAGE: Norris

Qatar - Lusail Circuit

Piastri has been masterful in Qatar ever since his first-ever first place in a race session at the 2023 sprint. Norris has been quite good as well to be fair -- Piastri did only win the '24 sprint because Norris handed it to him, and an unforced error under yellow flags meant Norris got a 10-second stop-go penalty in the grand prix. So things are closer than they seem.
ADVANTAGE: Piastri

Abu Dhabi - Yas Marina

Piastri was tagged by Verstappen in turn one of the 2024 grand prix, but he then made his day worse with contact with a Williams, which gave him his own penalty. All the while, Norris dominated all day long. Norris also cleared his teammate early in the 2023 race.
ADVANTAGE: Norris

Final thoughts

FINAL RESULTS: Norris holds an advantage on past results, 8-4

Again, this is only supplementary knowledge of form going into the latter half of 2025. Piastri has clearly turned up the heat on Norris in his third season. But Norris comes in with momentum. It should be quite the battle for the title, especially knowing the order of power could be shaken up with new regulations in 2026.