{"id":142855,"date":"2025-05-30T01:30:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T01:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/142855\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T01:30:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T01:30:17","slug":"why-oscar-piastri-wont-bring-down-the-house-in-lando-norris-mclaren-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/142855\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Oscar Piastri won’t ‘bring down the house’ in Lando Norris McLaren title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri has explained why he is viewing his friendly relationship with Lando Norris as being critical to maintain into the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Australian leads the Drivers\u2019 Championship by three points over Lando Norris, with an intra-McLaren challenge for the title the dynamic that has taken shape over the first third of the season.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri: Lando Norris and I will never cross the line<\/p>\n

Last season, Norris enjoyed enough of a pace and experience advantage over Piastri to build a significant enough lead in the title chase that, as the battle with Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen intensified, McLaren weighed in behind him by applying \u2018papaya rules\u2019 in the closing stages of the season.<\/p>\n

Up until Norris had opened up this advantage as Piastri\u2019s own title challenge faded, McLaren was particularly keen to maintain fairness and equality between its driver pairing \u2013 and this is a stance that hasn\u2019t changed over the winter.<\/p>\n

Both Norris and Piastri have taken race wins this year, with the resulting points dilution allowing Verstappen to remain in the hunt as the Dutch driver occupies third and 25 points down on Piastri\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s MCL39 has proven to be the most consistent of the frontrunning cars over the eight race weekends of F1 2025 so far, but what has been notable about the McLaren drivers\u2019 relationship with each other is that it has remained cordial and friendly \u2013 a very difficult dynamic to maintain when teammates face off against each other in the quest for a title.<\/p>\n

The two drivers remain off the leash to race each other, with full trust placed in them by CEO Zak Brown and team boss Andrea Stella that both will keep their responsibilities to deliver for the entire Woking-based squad and not allow their own personal goals to result in damaging incidents or collisions.<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, where Norris is gunning for his third win of the season while Piastri aims for his fifth, the Australian said both he and Norris had come into 2025 aware that their most immediate rival might be each other \u2013 allowing them time to prepare for this eventuality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, going into the year, we knew that it\u2019s impossible to have your own personal goal directly in parallel with the team\u2019s,\u201d Piastri told media, including PlanetF1.com, in Barcelona.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s something we\u2019ve both been very frank about, something that the team has been very aware of.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause, at the end of last year, we felt that if we went into this year with a car as strong as we finished with, we\u2019d be in this situation. I think we\u2019ve been very good at being open about it, just talking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he and Norris are aiming for a maiden title win this season, McLaren\u2019s current level is such that the Australian reckons several more title fights are on the horizon \u2013 meaning maintaining harmony between the pair is a top priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re never going to do anything that\u2019s unsportsmanlike or puts the team in a bad light or puts ourselves in a bad light. I think that\u2019s just not who Lando and I are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we want to go out and beat each other every weekend, but we\u2019re never going to cross that line that\u2019s going to cause damage that can\u2019t be repaired. Because, I\u2019ve said it a few times now, we don\u2019t want just one opportunity at this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re both at McLaren for a very long time after this year, and we want to fight for the championship every single year. I think we both understand it\u2019s pretty unwise to try and win one championship and bring the house down with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a unique situation, as Piastri acknowledged. It\u2019s not so long ago since Mercedes encountered fallout between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as the former childhood friends fell out in similar circumstances, and the Australian praised McLaren for its hands-off handling of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think every team would handle it as we are, no,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, there are not many teams in our situation with a car and drivers that are strong enough\u2026 we\u2019ve got a very good lead in the Constructors\u2019 Championship at the moment and, whilst we\u2019re continuing to build that gap, I think it\u2019s the right thing to do to let us both try and fight for a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will come a point where he believes the team should start imposing team orders as it closes in on the titles \u2013 but only if one of the pair develops a big enough lead to warrant some level of support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, once it\u2019s mathematically impossible, probably,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no, I think we both want to win or try and fight for this championship and score our own points.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, if there becomes a time, later in the year, where it is genuinely impossible \u2013 or very close to it \u2013 then, then, yes, maybe that will change, but I don\u2019t see that happening for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having had a run of momentum that saw him take wins in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Miami, Piastri was beaten by Norris at Imola and Monaco, and said he suspects this pattern of momentum switching will continue through the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to ebb and flow a bit through the whole year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, I mean, I\u2019m confident we\u2019ve analysed what went a little bit wrong in Monaco.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it still wasn\u2019t a terrible weekend, but just not as good as some of the weekends have been this year for me. So we\u2019ve looked at what we can do a bit better, and we\u2019ll try and put that in action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preview the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Norris back to the top? Four bold predictions drop for Spanish GP<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0What you can really expect to see from the FIA\u2019s new flexi-wing test<\/a><\/p>\n

Piastri\u2019s comfort with the dynamic at McLaren will be welcomed by Zak Brown, who outlined his position on his driver\u2019s assured equality during an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it\u2019s quite an easy thing to work through,\u201d Brown explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur drivers aren\u2019t asking for favouritism, they\u2019re asking for fairness, and that\u2019s what they get.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re very comfortable; may the best man win.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we give them a car in an environment where you\u2019re going into the last race and it\u2019s the two of them competing, and they didn\u2019t take points off each other to the point where it lets Max [Verstappen] or someone else get in there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if so, then whoever wins the Drivers\u2019 Championship has done a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n

This fairness is so important to Brown that he is prepared to see neither Norris or Piastri emerge as victors, if it means having had to rein in one in favour of the other.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m comfortable with that,\u201d Brown insisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m comfortable with that because the other scenario is, how do you take a driver out of the championship that\u2019s competing for the championship? That\u2019s not right at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had a second driver that wasn\u2019t competing for the championship, then I get it; sacrifice [Yuki] Tsunoda\u2019s qualifying because he\u2019s giving Max a tow or whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get compromising the second car at Red Bull because it\u2019s not competing for the Drivers\u2019 Championship, so it\u2019s an easy decision to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you\u2019ve got two drivers first and second in the championship and are separated by less than one second place finish, how do you possibly even consider standing one down into a supporting role?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just no way we will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Next: McLaren changes uncovered as teams prepare for tougher F1 wing checks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has explained why he is viewing his friendly relationship with Lando Norris as being critical to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,225,1710,12,1712,14,40707],"class_list":{"0":"post-142855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-mclaren","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-oscar-piastri","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-zak-brown"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114594199879156791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}