Lando Norris delivers surprising F1 title stance: 'We’ll all be dead'

Lando Norris has dismissed the idea he will need to get under Oscar Piastri's skin to beat the Australian to a maiden F1 drivers' championship.

The McLaren team-mates are locked into a tightly-fought battle for the title, but the British driver is remaining grounded, maintaining none of it will matter in two centuries because "we'll all be dead."

Whilst not the early signs of an existential crisis for the now-nine-time grand prix winner, it highlights his belief he does not need to try and provoke Piastri, something he would not enjoy, to beat him.

Norris prevailed in a tense crescendo to the Hungarian Grand Prix to close his F1 drivers' standings deficit to just nine points at the summer break, but speaking at the Hungaroring on Thursday, he explained why he will not take out any of the championship pressure on the 24-year-old.

"I don’t enjoy that," Norris told select British media when asked if he needs to get under Piastri's skin. "In 200 years, no one is going to care. We’ll all be dead.

"I am trying to have a good time. I still care about it, and that’s why I get upset sometimes, and I get disappointed and I get angry at myself.

"And I think that shows just how much I care about winning and losing. But that doesn’t mean I need to take it out on Oscar. I just don’t get into those kind of things."

Norris expanded on his perspective of the championship fight and where it sits in the grand scheme of things, but maintained that losing to Piastri means nothing more than that his team-mate did a "better job" across the campaign.

Intra-team battles for title glory seldom end amicably in F1, but the British driver does not believe he has to, therefore, resort to underhand tactics.

"Yes, he [Piastri] is the guy I want to beat more than anyone else," he added. "But if I don’t beat him, then that’s just because he has done a better job.

"I will do it the way I believe is best for me, and just because one person did it a few years ago, it doesn’t mean you have to do that, too. I don’t really care about those things."