Did Alan Jones find its potential successor? The 1980 world champion has been waiting for 45 years that an Australian pilot has been succeeding him at the list of formula 1. And the lucky one, it could well be Oscar Piastri. After five rounds, the McLaren driver heads the world championship in front of Lando Norris, already with three victories in his pocket. The native of Melbourne creates a thunderous start to the season with a fairly disconcerting tranquility despite the adversity proposed by his teammate and by Max Verstappen.
At 24, Oscar Piastri seems to have the maturity of a future champion, both on the track and outside. And that, Alan Jones did not fail to notice it. Now aged 78, the ex-pilot at the 116 Grands Prix (12 victories, a title) supports his compatriot in the title race, seeing in him a more than credible candidate for the world crown in 2025. He who made his career at Williams in the 1980s considers that the Australian has all the qualities to win at the end of the season … which is not the case Considers much mentally low.
Norris’ mental problems, « absurdities “ According to Jones
« [Piastri] is undoubtedly a future world champion, said Alan Jones at Fox Sports Australia. He can do this this year. He is a young man very mentally strong. (…) The first person you need to beat is your teammate. In the end, his teammate is fragile. It is very fast, there is no doubt, but mentally, I think it is a fairly weak person. He takes out all these absurdities by saying that he has a mental problem, that he lingers on the problems he has had rather than on the positive aspects. When [vos adversaires] Start saying all these nonsense, you know you hold them. »»
words that are reminiscent of Helmut Marko, at the end of 2024. Last October, the Austrian leader, special advisor at Red Bull, said Lando Norris had “Some mental weaknesses” In his duel against Max Verstappen, in an interview with Motorsport-Magazin. A suggestion that had not failed to make Zak Brown react, who had pinned Helmut Marko for his words “Derogating” against his pilot.
Since the start of the season, and despite a victory during the opening round in Australia, Lando Norris has struggled to find his marks with the MCL39 and commits small errors with heavy consequences. In Djeddah, he had experienced an Q3 accident which had forced him to set off in 10th place when, at the same time, Oscar Piastri qualified on the front line before winning the GP of Saudi Arabia the next day. The Briton has never hidden his difficulties, whether behind the wheel of his car or mentally. The Miami Grand Prix will be an opportunity for him to bounce back after a mixed start to the season.
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