Norris now only trails Piastri by eight points after winning the last two races in Austria and Silverstone
Johnny Herbert believes Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri “must be selfish” in their quest to win this year’s F1 world championship.
Norris claimed top spot ahead of McLaren teammate Piastri at the last two races in Austria and Silverstone, with the Briton winning his home grand prix for the first time.
It means, at the halfway stage of the season, championship leader Piastri has an eight-point advantage over Norris heading into the Belgian Grand Prix next week.
Norris has often been criticised for his lack of ruthlessness and hard-nosed edge, particularly during his title tilt last year against Max Verstappen. Yet three-time race winner Herbert says he saw signs at Silverstone that the 25-year-old was changing in this regard.
“I think Lando’s win at Silverstone changes the momentum in the championship,” Herbert said. “I think it's going to go like this for the rest of the season. Back and forth, one's going to have a strong one [weekend], one's going to probably have a slightly weaker one.
“And then it's just going to be ping pong as we go down the road towards the end of the championship.
“One thing I did notice was that when Oscar and Lando walked off, there wasn't that sort of arm around each other, they weren’t even talking to each other.
“It seemed there was a deliberate separation between them. This is part of them going for the championship and it's all got to be done in a very selfish way.
“That's where I'm seeing Lando mature. And when he has a weekend like he had at Silverstone I think it'll only be a positive thing for the rest of his season for him.”
Piastri was unhappy with the 10-second penalty handed his way for a safety car infringement, effectively costing him the race win.
“Oscar is going to be very upset with what happened to Silverstone and he's going to want to bounce back,” Herbert added, in quotes in association with ESportsBets.com. “So both of them are actually going to raise their game but for completely different reasons.
The next race is the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps next week (25-27 July).
Category: General Sports
