He’s no Einstein but . . . .
Anyone else seen the question doing the rounds of “ in equal machinery who wins, Charles, Lando or George”? My answer has always been the same, Lando. Because Charles has speed and George has brains, but Lando has enough of both to beat them.
The idea that Lando is stupid is a complete joke to me. Because in 2024 Lando Norris did something that effectively won him the world title in 2025. Meanwhile his teammate Oscar, widely considered to be intelligent, was completely blindsided by it.
Let’s break this down.
So after his win in Miami 2024 and podiums in Imola, Montreal and Barcelona, Lando knew he had a car that could challenge underneath him. By the time he and Max clashed in Austria, he knew he had a car that could fight for both titles. And by the way Max was racing Lando, Max knew it to!
Sadly McLaren for some reason unknown to man, didn’t see it! They fumbled Silverstone spectacularly and then they went to Budapest.
And this was Oscar’s first mistake. Anyone who watched that race, who has followed F1 for years was disgusted by McLaren asking Lando (the lead driver) to slow down to allow Oscar to pass. Not because a pit stop had gone wrong. Not because of an impending penalty. Simply because McLaren had banked on Oscar being able to catch Lando up for a simple swap, and he couldn’t do it. In Lando’s mind he is racing for the win and a shot at the title. He told the team as much,”it matters to me”. But Oscar was given the win and acted from that day forward as if he had earned it. Never an acknowledgement of Lando having to slow, or be told by the team to let him past. He acted as if he had done it on merit.
Now to me, a long standing F1 fan of 30 years+ I had one feeling that day. A driver who believes that they are World Champion material, would not be happy to have won that race, their first race, in that way. If you believe in yourself enough, you don’t need that kind of thing gifted to you. When you are leading a team and the whole team is geared to you winning the championship, then yes. Or you are in a team where you have raced for years and it looks like you may never get another chance, then yes. But your first win, in your second season, in the fastest car on the grid at that point, at 23, handed to you. Let’s just say it changed how I viewed Oscar that he was happy to take that.
Trouble was, having not addressed this, in Monza Oscar goes for a move that has a triple whammy. The team lose the race, the move costs Lando valuable points and most importantly was putting the team’s hope of a constructors title at risk. By now there is genuine talk of Lando challenging for the title. Not from McLaren mind you. They must have still been waiting for the idea to finish buffering and download.
Then Azerbaijan, Oscar’s second win. But again Lando is instrumental in helping Oscar get that win by frustrating the hell out of Perez. Yes it took a great move into turn one on Charles, but without Lando, neither Oscar or Charles are winning that race.
So by the time McLaren admit, full support behind Lando, Oscar has been helped to two wins and has cost the team another.
Oscar is asked to give up the win in the Brazil sprint to Lando, and then the rain soaked crash bandicoot spectacular with yet another red flag that screws Lando, happens on Sunday, effectively kills any hope Lando had for the title.
McLaren were far too late to realise what was going on, but Lando. Well Lando had been dialled in since around Canada. In the Qatar sprint, despite leading from the start and dragging Oscar along in his DRS the whole race, he defied the team to give Oscar the win on the line.
Finally Oscar acknowledged it. But by then Lando had the chess board loaded. When he crossed the line in Abu Dhabi in 2024 and announced next year would be his year, he was putting the team on notice, I’m fighting from race 1. And most importantly. I owe Oscar nothing when it comes to team orders. The one time you gave me something, I gave it back.
Then 2025 turns into a bit of a mess, Oscar lawn mowing in Australia, Lando having every car issue known to man and where the hell did Max come from at the start of the year?
By the time we got to Silverstone it might have looked a two horse race, but that radio message asking for the swap must have finally shock something loose in McLaren’s brain. If Oscar keeps getting and never having to give back, he’s never going to appreciate the value. Lando still knew that the team owed him for Hungary, and Azerbaijan. And any questionable move he pulled, well you let it slide in Monza folks 🤷♀️
Now we come to the real killer part. Monza 2025 and THAT team order. It’s not so much the order that caused the damage, it’s the fact the team took away Oscar’s narrative. Hey Osc you know when we had Lando slow down in Hungary to let you win the race? You remember that? Well today you need to pay that back.
Oscar had built his whole confidence around winning his first race in his second season and wasn’t he brilliant. His fans lauded it over everyone else. And the team had suddenly told him and everyone listening, you remember that time we and Lando let you win a race, well today you have to give up a third place because of that.
Oh man we saw the fall out. I standby the fact it was never simply the team order. That never made sense. Team orders had been used before at McLaren for both Lando and Oscar, it was that moment of saying we orchestrated your first win and the damage that did to Oscar’s confidence.
The confidence that abandoned him through Azerbaijan and Singapore and Austin and Mexico and Brazil. The worst part was when Lando bounced into him in Singapore again Lando had the ammunition. It’s no worse that what he did to me in Monza last year and nothing compared to what he did to me in Austin!
No one wanted to see Oscar in the wall. Hell a real F1 fan never wants to see anyone in the wall. Not really. But McLaren had burst the bubble around Oscar. And suddenly the noise the media and fans created about him being a robot and emotionless and ice cold was deafening. And I’ve talked about how McLaren really should have dealt with that better previously.
Meanwhile all those times Lando had silently helped the team and his teammate, well he started cashing them back in. To the point at the end of the season Mclaren were even considering asking Oscar to help Lando, if it meant neither of them would win the title. After all, the year before Lando had been left to win the constructors practically on his own in Abu Dhabi, the team’s debt to him at this point was insane.
And Lando having seen the team stumble and fumble 24, went into 25 with an arsenal against his own team and teammate. With favours to be returned and nothing in his own red column. It was a genius move. Almost Schumacheresque!
So when people say Lando didn’t deserve that championship I just laugh. As he seemed to have been multiple steps ahead of the rest of them for two seasons. When he says he’ll be back at the front and winning races before the end of this season, I wouldn’t discount it. He does magic tricks. Maybe the best one was loading his deck ready for when he needed it in a championship fight and we watched him do it, but were distracted by other things he did to actually realise what he was up to!
Oh and if my calculating is right, he is still owed for Azerbaijan 2024. Someone should really warn Oscar this time.
And for some of us, we haven’t forgotten Lando owes Carlos a podium. Ah Singapore 2023, you were special!
(You have no idea how long I have been meaning to write this, and even now, I’m not sure I want to post it)