Lando Norris receives instruction to make Oscar Piastri 'crack' in F1 title fight

Lando Norris has been told that he simply must focus on his own driving to make Oscar Piastri crack again in the F1 title fight. 

Piastri made a pair of uncharacteristic mistakes across the Baku weekend, crashing in qualifying and then on the first lap of the race - his first DNF since the 2023 United States GP, and leaving Norris a huge chance to eat into his 31-point deficit. 

He could not take that chance, instead finishing a lowly seventh after a botched safety car restart following Piastri's crash, although he was not helped by a slow McLaren pit-stop.

Of the two drivers, Piastri has been regarded as the cooler under pressure, with Norris making several errors earlier in the season, coming with fierce self-criticism of himself in the aftermath. 

Norris's seventh place reduced Piastri's lead to 25 points, with seven rounds and 199 points remaining on the board, with the Briton being told that the best way to make Piastri "crack" again is simply to beat him on track and not play any 'mental games.'

"I'm not sure about [Lando] using it against [Oscar], because he can't control it," Brabham told RacingNews365. 

"But it was a big shock for a lot of people to see Oscar making mistakes like that, and I would imagine it will give Lando hope that there is pressure building and that he's cracked it. 

"Oscar has made mistakes now, it could be something which was needed, so now he's adjusted, refocused and is going to be stronger for the rest of the season.

"Lando has really just got to focus on himself and get the most out of it because that's the only way he is going to be able to beat Oscar. 

"Then, if he is doing a really good job, that puts more pressure on Oscar, and we saw [in Azerbaijan] that he can crack, so it is interesting."