Monday Morning Debrief F1 Unlocked Austria

MONDAY MORNING DEBRIEF: Why Austria’s DRS effect was key in Norris and Piastri’s epic battle

Mark Hughes takes an in-depth look at the battle between McLaren team mates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the Austrian Grand Prix, with both cars in the hunt for victory.

Jun 30, 2025 9:53am UTC

Although Lando Norris dominated Oscar Piastri in Qualifying during an Austrian Grand Prix weekend, at which McLaren had a big performance advantage over the field, the team mates appeared to be much more closely-matched in the race.

Piastri gave chased closely throughout the race and got to within 1.3s of Norris on the penultimate lap. But, actually, that is a slightly misleading picture.

The reality was that Norris’ performance advantage over Piastri remained on race day but simply wasn’t always enough to overcome the combined effects of DRS and battery power.