Lando Norris handed 'self-damaging' warning in Oscar Piastri battle

1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has warned Lando Norris that he is "self-damaging" his title chances, by being so publicly critical of his mistakes. 

Norris heads into this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix on the back of consecutive victories in Austria and Silverstone, moving him just eight points adrift of Oscar Piastri. 

It is set to be an all-McLaren scrap for the drivers' championship, with both Norris and Piastri searching for a maiden F1 title. 

Both drivers have a different personality which has been evident this year, through how they have behaved after making a mistake. For much of the season so far, Norris has been very self-critical after errors, whilst Piastri has remained calm and collected. 

However, that changed for the first time after the British Grand Prix, where the Australian detailed his frustration at being handed a victory-costing penalty.

It represented an unseen side of Piastri, making Villeneuve question how the 24-year-old will react in other situations. At the same time, the Canadian has pinpointed Norris' self-critical nature as damaging.

"It’s great because they’re very different," Villeneuve told F1. "Both can win it, and we don’t know which one will get the upper hand. 

"I think Norris still has the edge speed-wise, but he’s so good at berating himself that it’s also self-damaging at some point. With Piastri, it was the first time he got a penalty at Silverstone, and that saw a bit of a change of attitude. 

"When you’re fighting for the championship, it really changes your approach. We’ve seen Norris being in the lead of the championship, being behind, fighting back, so we’ve seen kind of everything that Norris is. 

"We haven’t seen everything that Piastri is and how he reacts in certain situations. Will that make him better or worse? That’s what I’m waiting to see."