Former F1 team principal Guenther Steiner believes Lando Norris' minor mistakes will cost him in the title fight this year.
Norris is engaged in a championship battle with McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, with the latter holding a 16-point lead in the drivers' standings.
Piastri eked out his advantage with a victory at the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, while Norris was forced to settle for second.
In the closing stages of the race, Norris was chasing Piastri for the lead, but a couple of mistakes at Turn 1 hurt his pursuit of the Australian.
Although the mistake was small, Steiner highlighted they have been a consistent feature of Norris' season to date.
“We see it over and over again with Lando,” Steiner told the Red Flags podcast.
“He makes these little mistakes and therefore, I always say that Oscar will win the championship.
“That is what makes the difference. He is as fast as Oscar if everything goes right.
“But he has just got these small glitches. They come from nowhere and you never know when they are coming.”
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Early Belgian GP overtake 'not a mistake' from Lando Norris
Norris started the race from Spa-Francorchamps from pole position but lost his lead when the race finally got underway after a rain delay.
The Briton was overtaken by Piastri on the run to Turn 5.
While accepting Piastri was braver through the opening segment of the restart, Steiner denied it was an error on Norris' part.
“It’s not a mistake, I don’t know how much you can avoid it. It’s very difficult to avoid,” he said.
“But the guy behind needs to be on it, otherwise you can’t do it. Oscar, you could see he was braver, he was flat through [Eau Rouge].
“The combination of the slipstream and being fast made it possible for him to overtake.
“The restarts, you need to be smart and outsmart the guy behind you. He didn’t because Oscar was really on him.
“You can always say ‘He could have been smarter with the restart’ but sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don’t.”
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365’s Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding, as they dissect the Belgian Grand Prix and look ahead to Hungary. The 80-minute delay is a major talking point, as is Lewis Hamilton’s brutal self-critical comment.
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