F1
Lando Norris says his car failure in Zandvoort was just simply “unlucky” and he will now “try to do more than I’ve ever done” to close 34-point gap to team-mate Oscar Piastri; watch Friday’s practice sessions for the Italian GP at 12.30pm and 4pm, live on Sky Sports F1
Friday 5 September 2025 08:49, UK
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Lando Norris says McLaren bosses Zak Brown and Andrea Stella apologised to him after an oil leak caused him to retire from the Dutch Grand Prix.
Norris is 34 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri, having been on course to finish second at Zandvoort until a car part failed on the chassis side which led to an oil leak and the engine to shut down.
The British driver found it “surprisingly easy” to “move on” from McLaren’s first mechanical retirement since 2023’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
“It’s not Andrea’s fault, it’s not Zak’s fault. I think it was 60-something races without a technical failure, without any issues. I think that’s a record for ourselves. It’s something we’re pretty proud about,” said Norris ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
“For that to happen now, that’s just being unlucky. It wasn’t a bad job by anyone. It was just various things coming together and then just being unlucky.
“Andrea and Zak apologised because it feels like it’s their behalf to apologise, but it’s not their fault. They apologised because they feel like they have let me down, the same as I apologise when I feel like I let them down.
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“Otherwise, it’s life. You just can’t do anything about it. I can literally only look ahead to the next few races and then try and to do more than I’ve ever done.”
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Norris has nine rounds to turn the championship around but will likely need to win a series of races, or rely on a mistake or misfortune for his McLaren team-mate Piastri.
In 2016, Lewis Hamilton had an engine failure when leading the Malaysian Grand Prix and fell 23 points behind Nico Rosberg with five rounds to go – a gap he never recovered, despite having four consecutive wins to end the season.
“There are still plenty of races to try and make up for the points I lost last weekend. I’ve got to look at it that way rather than any other way, so that’s the way I’ll be doing it,” said Norris.
“I mean, every weekend I’m trying to win; I don’t need to change that. If there are those situations where we have to race, of course no one is going to want to make it easier for one another, whether it’s Oscar for me or me for Oscar.
“He’s still my team-mate at the end of the day. We still have to respect each other a lot, but we always race each other well and on the limit, and that’s how we will continue to be.”
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While Piastri is on a run of 33 consecutive points-scoring grands prix, Norris made clear he wished no misfortune on his team-mate to level the unreliability scores.
“I really don’t pay attention to the luck and all these things, there’s no point,” he added. “I don’t want to waste my time on hoping for it or praying for it, or whatever. I was unlucky last weekend and that’s life, it happens.
“It might get to the end of the year and nothing else happens and if I lose the championship by the amount of points I lost on the weekend, then that’s tough, that’s life, I’ll move on and I’ll come back again next year and try and do better.
“I don’t wish for bad luck for anyone else, it was just I was unlucky that weekend and this weekend I have to come back and try and do better.”
Piastri has been the more consistent driver this season at McLaren and would have still been leading the championship by 16 points, had Norris finished second in Zandvoort.
The Australian won the F3 and F2 titles in his rookie campaign, so has experience of seeing out a championship, albeit at a lower level, and pointed out a time when he lost a championship earlier in his career with a big advantage.
“Very little [will change]. I’ve had one of my own championships where I’ve had a much bigger gap than this, and had it pretty much a race before the final round, so I’ve got personal experience of this not being a comfortable gap,” he said.
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“It’s still far too early to be kind of calculating and settling for positions that aren’t first. For me, the approach is still exactly the same. That won’t change until the gap is significantly bigger, or the amount of races is significantly smaller.”
The closeness of the McLaren pair have led to some intense on-track battles in Australia, Canada – where Norris hit Piastri – Austria and Hungary.
But, Piastri insists he will keep the same aggression levels that saw him come close to blows with Norris at times.
“I don’t think much will change. Lando’s certainly not out of the fight. It’s a bit more difficult now, but I don’t expect much to change,” he said.
“I think we’ll race each other the same way. I think the amount of risk-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.”
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Friday September 5
8.30am: F3 Practice
9.55am: F2 Practice
12pm: Italian Grand Prix Practice One (session starts at 12:30pm)*
1.55pm: F3 Qualifying
2.50pm: F2 Qualifying
3.35pm: Italian Grand Prix Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
5.15pm: The F1 Show
Saturday September 6
8.10am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Italian Grand Prix Practice Three (session starts at 11:30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Italian Grand Prix Qualifying build-up
3pm: ITALIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING*
5pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday September 7
7.10am: F3 Feature Race
8.40am: F2 Feature Race
10.40am: Porsche Supercup Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Italian GP build-up
2pm: THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Chequered Flag: Italian GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1’s European season concludes with the Italian Grand Prix – watch the whole Monza weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
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