The second half of the 2025 Formula 1 season is upon us.<\/p>\n
After a two-week layoff, the grid returns to action with the Belgian Grand Prix, one of two races before the August summer shutdown. But with 12 race weekends left, the Drivers\u2019 Championship remains a fight between McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Piastri maintains an eight-point lead<\/a> over Norris, but the British driver has won consecutive Grands Prix for the first time in his career and heads to Spa in fine form.<\/p>\n How might this battle between McLaren drivers unfold over the final half of the season?<\/p>\n The official F1 website spoke with five living legends<\/a> \u2014 2009 Champion Jenson Button, 1997 Drivers\u2019 Champion Jacques Villeneuve, 13-time Grand Prix winner and F1TV analyst David Coulthard, three-time Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert, and 12-time podium finisher Stefan Johansson \u2014 about the major storylines from the season, including the Norris-Piastri title fight.<\/p>\n Each living legend sees this bout going down to the final bell.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it was half a World Championship, Oscar\u2019s won,\u201d began Coulthard. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone could say he hasn\u2019t deserved to be leading \u2013 he was leading before [the McLarens] came together in Canada. But if Lando turns it around in the second half of the season, he\u2019s doing it against someone that\u2019s a talented third year F1 driver. It\u2019s a bit like 2021, where some people are still so vocal about what happened\u2026 only one driver could win. Both Max and Lewis Hamilton drove like World Champions that year, but only one of them could have the title.\u201d<\/p>\n The former Red Bull and McLaren driver praised his former team for how they are handling the fight.<\/p>\n \u201cI think McLaren have handled it really well. I think both their drivers are on the tamer side of animal than the wilder side of animal, so that probably makes it a little bit easier,\u201d added Coulthard. \u201cBut this could also be their only chance to win a world title; we don\u2019t know what 2026 brings, we don\u2019t know what the future is, so you\u2019ve got to seize the moment. That\u2019s why I\u2019m really impressed with how Oscar has stepped up this year. But Lando\u2019s response over the last two races is showing his quality as well. I think it\u2019s going to be one of those things where both of them deserve it, but only one can get it.\u201d<\/p>\n Johansson noted that who wins the title might come down to the \u201ccircumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s going to go down to the wire. In the end, it will probably be circumstances that tip the outcome of the championship. Because speed-wise they\u2019re so close, it\u2019s probably going to come down to race craft, reading situations the right way, and avoiding any sort of unforced errors, if you like,\u201d said Johansson. \u201cOscar had his penalty at Silverstone<\/a>, which you can debate whether it was justified or not<\/a>, but I think things like that, or Lando\u2019s incident in Montreal\u2026 those are the things that are going to tip the scale at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n