McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has explained the true reason Lando Norris has gained a pace advantage over Oscar Piastri in the final stage of the season.
The F1 driver's championship looked all but certain to be heading down under, with Oscar Piastri winning seven of the opening 15 Grand Prix in 2025.
However, since the Dutch Grand Prix back in August the Australian has failed to win a race, and picked up just one podium in the five GPs since.
Piastri's sudden drop in form has meant that his championship lead of 34 points has completely evaporated, with his McLaren teammate Norris now leading by nine points ahead of the Brazil GP.
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Norris will start the race from pole, and will have Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc between himself and Piastri as he looks to further extend his title lead.
Piastri was comfortably quicker than Norris for a large part of the 2025 season, meaning the sudden switch in fortunes has raised eyebrows across the paddock.
Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone even theorised that McLaren were purposely sabotaging Piastri due to Norris being a more marketable asset.
Piastri fall-off down to Norris 'natural ability' claim McLaren
However, following qualifying for the Brazil GP, Stella provided a detailed explanation of the current pace differential.
“Today, if anything, the conditions saw much less grip on track compared to yesterday,” The McLaren man explained.
“Oscar has been very competitive and very fast since the beginning of the weekend, but these conditions make things tricky.
“Some of the techniques required to drive the car fast resemble what was needed in Austin and Mexico, and Oscar is still embedding that technique."
Stella told the media that Piastri's abilities in low-grip conditions are not as natural as Norris', who is widely regarded as one of the grid's wet-weather specialists.
“For Lando, in this regime of low grip, it’s just a little more natural to do the things that produce lap time; for Oscar, it’s a learning process.
"He [Piastri] learns at the speed of light, and I expect him to have a very strong race tomorrow.”
Despite losing more ground to Norris by crashing out of the sprint and qualifying fourth for the Grand Prix, Piastri has insisted he remains confident he can put himself back on the top step.
"I've still got the belief I can go out and win races and win the championship, but things are not coming as easy as I'd like at the moment," Piastri said after qualifying three places behind Norris.
"[Piastri's ambitions for the race] Try and pass a few cars really, that's all I can try and do, try and capitalise on any opportunities that come up and see what happens."
Topics: Formula 1, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Motorsport
Tom Jenkins