Former Australian racing star Alan Jones has criticised L💦ando Norris as “mentally weak”, saying he i🧜s “coming out with nonsense” to justify his poor start to the 2025 Formula 1 season.

Norris was initially considered the fa⛄vourite for this year’s drivers’ championship, with♒ a victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix giving him an early advantage over the competition.

However, the pendulum at McLaren has quickly shifted in the last few races, with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Oscar Piastri’s third victory of 2025 in Saudi Araꦗbia giving him a 10-poi♈nt lead in the standings.

Norris’s 2025 campaign has been hamstrung by a series o♑f errors in qualifying and races, with even the Briton admitting to his frustration publicly in public.

After a tough showing in Bahrain, Norris co♉mmented “I feel like I've never driven an F1 car”, while he cut a similarly dejected figure in Jeddah last month.

Jones, who remains the last Australian driver to win an F1 title, feels Norris’ recent comments show he lacks the mental strength to succeed in g💖rand prix ra🐼cing.

This, he believes, puts Piastri in a prime position in the champions🐲hip fight.

“The first person you’ve ꦦgot to beat is your teammate,” Jones told Fox Sports Australia.

“He [Piastri] can do it [win the F1 ti🍃tle] this year, no question. At the end of the day, his tea♔mmate is weak.

“His🎉 teammate is quite quick, there’s no doubt about that. But mentally, I think he’s quite a weak person. He’s coming out with all this nonsense that he’s got a bit of a mental thing, he’s dwelling on some of the problems he’s had rather than the positives.

“When they start talkin🌜g all that nonsense, you know yo🧸u’ve got them.”

Piastri is currently in his third season in F1 but with five💟 grand prix wins he has already equalled the tally of his more experienced teammate Norris, wh✱o made his debut in 2019.

Ex-Williams ace Jones sang praises for his countryman Piastri, saying he can𓄧 capitalise on Norris’ weaknesses and emerge as the top dog in the 2025 season.

“Oscar is 🐈a pretty strong-minded young ki🥂d. I love him,” the 78-year-old said.

“He doesn’t show off, he doesn’t dance all over the place. He’s juꦉst a strong individual and that’s exactly what we﷽ need to get the job done.

ꩵ“He’s got an old head on young shoulders. He’s very, very mature. He’s very laid back. He’s not easily ruffled, whereas I think his teammate is a little bit the opposite way.

“I think the teammate could be blo꧒wn out quite easily and I think Oscar will take advantage of that. He’s got the brains and the strength to do that. He’s very laid back, he doesn't say 𝔍much and he gets on with it, which I love.

“Out of the car, he’s quiet, but when he gets in the car he g💖rows horns an📖d that’s what you want.”

He added: “He is without a doubt a future world champion. He’sꦬ come out of almost nowhere and he’s got all the attributes that you need to be a world champion.”