Piastri has won three of the first five races of 2025 with his victory in Saudi Arabia last time out catapulting him to the top of the points table.
The Australian sits 10 points clear of McLaren teammate Norris after Saudi Arabia, the first time he’s led the world championship.
Meanwhile, Norris has cut a dejected figure at times as the 25-year-old refused to shy away from his own setbacks.
He struggled for pace in China before mistakes in qualifying in Japan and again in Bahrain proved costly.
Another in Saudi Arabia, where he crashed out in Qualifying 3, has led to 1980 world champion Alan Jones suggesting he is mentally weak.
By contrast, Piastri has remained level-headed and unemotional in front of the press, leading to suggestions that his mental fortitude will see him win out over his McLaren colleague.
“Everybody’s different,” Piastri reasoned.
“For me, the most important thing is to try and do things in the style that is most natural to you.
“When you start trying to do things that aren’t your natural way of being a person, that’s when things become confusing, when things start to go wrong.
“Everybody handles that differently.
“Lando handles that quite differently to how I handle it, but I think probably a lot of the emotions across the grid that happen, regardless of whether they’re in the public or not, are probably pretty similar.
“That’s just kind of how we’re wired as people, as competitors.”
Australian F1 legend backs Piastri over ‘weak’ McLaren teammate
Piastri has developed a reputation for being unflappable.
Under intense pressure during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last year, he remained steadfast to record his first Formula 1 race win.
He’s also proved incredibly consistent, with a streak of 31 consecutive race finishes, with last year’s Miami Grand Prix the last time he was outside the top 10.
In 51 grand prix weekends, he’s also yet to cause any significant damage to his car.
That matter-of-fact approach has seen him marked out as a future champion, though he suggests that alone doesn’t give him an upper hand over Norris.
“Obviously there’s a lot of different emotions and different ways of dealing with that,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong way, I think it’s very individual to the person.
“Again, I’m quite different, probably at the other end of the spectrum [to Norris], but I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way of dealing with it.
“If that’s what you feel is the best way of either venting or trying to reset yourself, then great.
“Lando knows himself much better than I, probably all of us.”
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