Defensive Masterclass from Verstappen shows Piastri learns faster than Norris

In his seventh year in Formula 1, Norris has the greatest chance at a world title, but the Brit seems to be not yet ready at this point. Where in 2024 Max Verstappen was too fast for him, in 2025 Oscar Piastri has also overtaken him. In qualifying, but especially in wheel to wheel racing. This became once again clear in the Miami Grand Prix.

In Miami Norris got everything that he possibly could wrong, in a duel with Verstappen. In the first lap, he squandered an excellent position by staying on the outside of Verstappen in turn 2. An impossible place to overtake someone like Verstappen, and Norris thereby lost many places, and indirectly the race with that action.

Norris stated after the fact that he can never 'do right'. 'If I don't try, people complain. If I do try, people also complain, so you can never do right,' said the Brit after the race. However, that's not a good realisation. It's about what you do in which situation. Something other competitors of Verstappen have understood.

In this case, Norris should not have remained alongside Verstappen, just like Andrea Stella said after the race. Just as he should not have overtaken Verstappen off the track. Especially that last move showed that Norris has not learned from previous mistakes. A similar mistake cost him a good result in the United States in 2024 in a duel with Verstappen. And now it happened again.

Eventually, Norris passed his rival, but it had taken too long. Meanwhile, Piastri had disappeared on the horizon and could manage his race until the end. The race was fought, especially because Norris had been stuck behind Verstappen for too much time.

The biggest problem in Norris's racing is that he doesn't seem to learn from previous mistakes. In duels with opponents, you must eventually also learn to read them. What are they going to do, when and how can you thus outsmart them with a much faster car. Where Norris gets fooled weekly in duels with Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton (Jeddah), his teammate seems to learn much faster.

Because it also took a while for Piastri to pass the Red Bull driver, but he did that more efficiently than Norris. Piastri didn't waste time with pointless moves, but waited for a mistake from Verstappen. Piastri knew that he would never get the space from Verstappen on the outside. So, he waited for a moment when Verstappen would go too wide, after which he could still overtake on the inside in turn one.

It shows that Piastri does learn from previous duels, as he attacked Verstappen with his own trick in Saudi Arabia at the start. Piastri is getting faster in qualifying, can manage races better, but most importantly, has become a much better racer. That's still lacking in Norris, and if you haven't learned that in seven years, you have to wonder if it will ever come.