Lando Norris highlights 'emotional' consequence of unique Oscar Piastri trait

Lando Norris has claimed he feels like he is "cool", but acknowledged the ice-cold Oscar Piastri makes him look like he is "emotional" by comparison.

The McLaren driver has fought a close F1 drivers' championship battle with his team-mate across the current season, but is widely considered to be less consistent and less unfazed than the Australian, especially when the tension of the title fight rises.

Norris has made high-profile errors when the pressure has reached an apex, which have cost him valuable points in the hunt for a maiden crown.

The Briton is 34 points behind Piastri in the standings after the Dutch Grand Prix, but that deficit would have only been 16 if it were not for the unfortunate chassis issue that forced him into retirement at Zandvoort.

Nonetheless, in an intra-McLaren contest that is broadly being seen as contingent upon who makes the fewest mistakes, Norris is viewed to be on the back foot. It is a situation that has only been compounded by his bad luck in the Netherlands.

Norris has four years more experience in F1 than Piastri, which is, therefore, a key area in which he feels he has the upper hand.

"As much as I always hated using experience as an excuse or reasoning for things, you end up going, 'yeah, well, I just learned about this because of experience'," Norris told Viaplay before the Dutch Grand Prix. "And that is my advantage over Oscar.

"But he certainly doesn't lack in speed, talent, ability in any sense of the word," he stated of his team-mate.

Norris is generally considered to be the slightly quicker of the two, at least at this stage of their careers, but the nine-time grand prix winner does not see it that way, viewing Piastri to be on par with him. 

"So, I know what I'm going up against," he said. "I'm going up against a guy who is the same speed as me and just as good as me."

The 25-year-old has often been criticised for how he conducts himself in the media, being judged to be too open with the press.

It is part of a wider picture that plays into the narrative that he is considerably less composed than the unflappable Piastri and that the championship fight is between two very different characters behind the wheel of an F1 car.

However, Norris maintains he is "cool" in the cockpit, even if Piastri makes that appear not to be the case.

"He's incredibly calm," he added. "He's cool. I feel like I am, but he makes me look like I'm emotional."