Ben1980 wrote: ↑06 Nov 2024, 14:33
Norris is more experienced but barely older than Piastri. 16 months or sonething. Only a school year in it. It's easy to forget his age, turns 25 this month. Still over 2 years younger than Max or Charles.
Max has 86 more GP starts. That's not far off Landos GP career of 125.
A school year in it, plus:
4 Years in the team
Input into the cars development
4 years training whilst in the best racing category there is
2 High level drivers to compare race data and learn from
Relationships build and understanding of how the team work, present data, extract the best from car and driver
Ability to develop with lower expectations than what is on Oscar right now due to the cars position and what was relatively at stake for the team
Not having a year out of competitive racing in 2022 before the 2023 season
Age I don't think, has anything to do with it. The team have had 4 years to work age out as any kind of factor for a lack of success Max was 23 with his first championship. Lando has a massive headstart on Oscar and it doesn't really reflect in the performances. It's Oscar first competitive year in the car too, and he's not far behind Lando and over the second half of the season, is performing to a very similar level. And that is the most telling thing. His teammate is closing him down. Even with some bad races, he's closing down the performance gap.
What will be said if and when he starts to open up his own?
It's 14-7 to Lando on Race head to head. But once you look to see where Oscar found his feet this year, from Monaco onwards, the race head to head is 8-6 to Lando.
And that's why I'll repeat again. Next year is a big season for Lando. Forget the WDC, it he can't shake Oscar, or Oscar starts getting on top of him, he's going to struggle to fight to be seen as the future of the team.