Norris needs to find his sweet spot again as Piastri leads the standings — Miami could be the ideal place to do it

Whenever you ask Lando Norris about his maiden Grand Prix victory in Miami last year, his face immediately lights up. The 25-year-old had always hoped he could achieve the feat, but he’s the kind of person who needs to see it to believe it and that win in Miami — beating his friend and rival Max Verstappen, to boot — ticked that box nicely.

As the year went on, his belief in himself continued to grow — helped in part by adding three more Grands Prix victory trophies to his cabinet. And after Abu Dhabi, where Norris secured the win that guaranteed McLaren the Constructors’ Championship, you got the sense he believed when he said to his team “next year is going to be my year”.

And it certainly looked that way after he deftly handled treacherous conditions in Australia to win the opener and seize the championship lead. But, thereafter, it’s been far more difficult. Tiny mistakes have crept in as he struggled for confidence on corner entry, and they’ve been compounded by the fact that his teammate Oscar Piastri is flying and looks bulletproof.

The Australian has won three of the first five Grands Prix, including the last two, and has made huge gains in terms of his qualifying capabilities by getting his first pole position in China, and then arriving in Miami with a 3-2 head-to-head lead with Norris in Grand Prix Qualifying trim.

Piastri has all the tools

Piastri has levelled up in a big way, delivering on his pre-season comments that he felt “like I have all the tools at my disposal now, which I don’t think I necessarily felt 12 months ago”.  He added: “It’s now about making sure I use them all the time and put my best foot forward as often as I can.”

Piastri is doing just that. And the result is the championship lead, by 10 points from Norris.

It’s a measure of how well Piastri is driving that Verstappen offered the highest of compliments to his rival. “He delivers when he has to, barely makes mistakes — and that’s what you need when you want to fight for a championship.”

You could say Verstappen was describing himself — which highlights how much of a threat he considers Piastri to be.

Those who know Piastri well will tell you he’s always been super calm, super focused, super diligent — and a very fast learner. He’s hard to rattle — and really very easy to get on with. It’s no surprise the team love him. And then crucially, he has got a fine inner circle, including his management duo Ann and Mark Webber.

That is a mighty foe for Norris to come up against — and perhaps why some of that belief earned from last season has ebbed away. It’s one thing to get beaten by a driver in a different car who is considered to be the best of his generation and quite another to get beaten by someone with the same machinery, who is competing in only his third season.

Norris far from rattled

But Norris swatted away any chatter about him being rattled by Piastri’s momentum. “No, not worried at all,” he said. “He’s doing a good job and he deserves it. I don’t believe so much in the momentum stuff — it’s just my opinion. But I’m doing what I can.

“Clearly, I’ve made some mistakes and I’m not at the level I need to be but I believe I can be at the level soon enough — so no reason to be worried. It’s round six of 24. I’m not going to say that forever. I know I need to get a move on and I need to get into gear a little bit but the speed is there, the pace is there.”

Miami, then, couldn't come soon enough for Norris. He was strong here last year and while he did have a bit of fortune with the safety car that catapulted him into the lead, it was the latest in a series of races where Norris was coming of age.

If he slows Piastri’s momentum in Miami — and can call on some of the strategies he was employing at the back-end of 2023 when he was making mistakes at the sharp end of qualifying when he pushed a little too hard — that might be enough to steady the ship and set up an exciting fight with his teammate and Verstappen for the championship.

First, though, Norris needs to gel with his car and find that sweet spot again — and Miami provides the ideal backdrop to do just that.