Can Norris take risks? Piastri reveals the approach he expects from his teammate

22:47, 04 Sep

byTobia Elia

Despite increasing his points gap thanks to his teammate’s DNF at Zandvoort last week, Oscar Piastri remains fully focused on his championship goal.

After conceding three of the last four wins prior to the Dutch GP, Oscar Piastri could gain important points in the Netherlands when teammate Lando Norris retired.

The Australian driver now holds a 34-point lead with nine Grands Prix weekends remaining in the current campaign.

However, despite the victory and the 25 points gained, nothing changes for Piastri in terms of the championship, and he intends to stay focused as he has throughout the season.

Oscar Piastri

Piastri isn’t resting on increased points lead

''I've got personal experience of this not being a comfortable gap,'' he told GPblog at Monza on Thursday.

''It's still far to early for me calculating and settling for positions that aren't first. So for me, the process is exactly the same. That won't change until the gap is pretty significantly bigger or the amount of races is significantly smaller.''

When asked whether he thinks Norris will be more aggressive now that he has much less to lose, the Australian added: ''I don't think so. I don't think much will change. It's certainly not out of fight. Yes, it's a bit more difficult now, but I don't expect much to change.''

''I think we'll race each other the same way. I think the amount of risk we're taking will be the same. We're both trying to drive as fast as we can. It's not like we've been holding anything back from that side of things. So I don't think we're getting anything to change.''

McLaren arrives in Italy aiming for yet another one-two finish this season, with Piastri eager to reclaim the victory that eluded him last year in favor of Charles Leclerc, who managed to defeat the Woking-based team's cars with a one-stop strategy.