The Woking-based McLaren team has decided to let its two drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, fight for the 2025 World Championship without worrying about other competitors who may occasionally come between the two papaya cars. Team strategy will no longer dictate decisions aimed at securing the best overall team result, as it did in Hungary; instead, both Norris and Piastri will be free to play their chances to the fullest.
A year ago, the qualifying session at Zandvoort showcased a stellar performance from Lando Norris, who claimed pole position with a 0.356-second advantage over Max Verstappen and half a second over Oscar Piastri. Norris confirmed his dominance in the race, winning by more than twenty-two seconds over Verstappen and completing one of his most remarkable weekends in Formula 1.
Fast forward twelve months, the track remains the same, Lando Norris enters as the clear pre-race favorite, and McLaren is unquestionably a winning car. What has changed is the context—a completely new scenario in which Norris and Piastri will immerse themselves through to late autumn.
For McLaren’s two drivers, a fiercely competitive second half of the season is about to begin, with one certainty that has solidified into a definitive fact: the 2025 World Champion will emerge from their internal duel. Piastri emphasized that last year’s results should be considered largely irrelevant. “In the first part of this season, I’ve shown improvement in many areas. Interestingly, the circuits where I struggled in 2024 have become the tracks where I’ve performed the best so far,” he explained.
Starting from the very first practice session, Piastri and Norris will embark on a ten-weekend sprint, fully aware that they hold a genuine chance of winning their first Formula 1 World Championship. At the same time, they carry the pressure of knowing that any mistake could prove extremely costly. Norris admitted candidly, “I’d be lying and perhaps a little arrogant if I said I’m not nervous—only those out of the championship fight aren’t. I’ll have to manage the pressure, and I don’t think there’s a single way to do that; everyone handles it differently.”
McLaren as the Decider of the Drivers’ Championship
In the title battle between Piastri and Norris, the team’s decisions will play a crucial role. During the Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren’s pit wall managed the race with the goal of achieving the best overall team result. This strategy ultimately allowed Norris the opportunity to reverse a race that initially seemed lost. Piastri would have preferred merely to mark Norris’ race, but the team prioritized the optimal strategy against Charles Leclerc, which effectively disadvantaged Oscar.
“We discussed it,” Piastri confirmed. “I think there are race situations where being further back means you have far less to lose, and that’s something that will always be a factor. There were discussions about whether we could have made different decisions regarding my race, and it was a very useful exchange. We will still be free to choose alternative strategies if we think it’s necessary, but there were talks on how best to approach the situation since the championship is on the line.”
Norris described the events in Budapest as an exception. “My decision to go for a one-stop strategy was almost forced; it would have been foolish to pit a second time after all the drivers ahead of me had already done their second stop. It was more about overtaking George, having the chance to pass him. At that point, it wasn’t clear whether there would really be a chance to win the race. It was quite surprising that it turned out that way; I didn’t make that decision thinking, ‘okay, this is my race and I can try to win it.’ It wasn’t part of our normal approach.”
Internal Rivalry Will Be the Only Focus
“I think both Oscar and I want plans that aren’t too rigid; we don’t want to be told not to race,” Norris added. “We are here as individual drivers to prove who can perform better. Obviously, there have been discussions, there have been exchanges, and I can say that we have a good understanding as a team, which was confirmed even after Budapest. We expect more exciting battles and strong competition between me and Oscar.”
From this weekend onward, the primary objective for both McLaren drivers will be the outcome of their internal rivalry. Any other competitors, such as those fighting for the race win as seen during the first half of the Hungarian Grand Prix, will be secondary. The main focus for the two papaya drivers and their race engineers will be on the performance of the other McLaren, and it couldn’t be otherwise.
With the Constructors’ Championship already secured and technical superiority confirmed by four consecutive 1-2 finishes in the last four races, the team led by Andrea Stella must be prepared to potentially risk a race win to avoid jeopardizing internal relations within the garage.
It’s not guaranteed that this scenario will fully play out—at the moment, it’s hard to imagine rivals who could match the pace of the two MCL39s—but finishing the season under the chequered flag with a united team is crucial to ending a dream campaign. In this context, sacrificing a race victory is a minor price to pay.
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