A perfect Sunday. The fourth one-two finish of the season was expected, but McLaren could not have predicted the unforced error from Max Verstappen. The 2025 championship reaches its halfway point next weekend at Silverstone, but many conclusions have already been drawn.
No one has thought about the constructors’ title for a long time; the FIA could already prepare the year-end trophies. In the driver standings, Verstappen was long a threat. After the Spielberg weekend, he is no longer. His gap to leader Oscar Piastri is now 61 points, and to Lando Norris, 46 points.
An unbridgeable gap especially considering the two McLaren drivers have a stellar car, confirmed by the 70 laps at the Austrian Grand Prix. The only high-tension moment in the McLaren pit wall happened on lap 19, when a combative Piastri (who had stayed in Norris’s DRS zone since the start) attempted a risky move at turn 4.
A matter of centimeters, and the weekend’s story would have been different. A potential crash would have put the drivers and the team’s decision to let them race freely under scrutiny. No contact occurred, but Piastri drastically reduced his chances of winning at that moment.
Leading allowed Norris to pit first (called in on lap 20) and use fresh tires to extend his gap. Piastri pitted four laps later, seeming a choice to keep the peace since Oscar rejoined six seconds behind his teammate.
“In these cases, there are two options,” explained Andrea Stella after the race. “You can pit the next lap and come out probably a couple of seconds behind the car ahead but with tires in the same wear window. Or you stay out a few laps longer to build a so-called ‘tire delta.’ This costs time early in the stint but should be recovered later with fresher tires.”
The strategy with Oscar Piastri did not work as expected. Using medium tires in the first and third stints, Oscar was slightly faster than Norris, but Lando, on hard tires in the middle stint, managed to offset the two-tenths advantage Piastri had. The gap created between the two in the second stint also helped Norris in driving.
“Lando could drive without pressure from Oscar behind him,” confirmed Stella. “His sequence of laps was very fast, making Piastri’s strategy look less ideal.”
Norris capped one of his best weekends in Formula 1 perfectly. His third win of the season (after Australia and Monaco) cut his deficit to Piastri to 15 points and responded strongly to criticism following the Montreal incident. Verstappen’s exit from the title fight will make the rivalry between the two McLaren drivers more open, removing any need for team orders except to bring both cars home.
“I’m very proud of how our drivers raced today,” admitted Stella. “It’s what we want to see as McLaren. We want to give them the chance to express their talent and fulfill their ambitions, but this must happen respecting the principles we have built as a team. I believe today showed an example of this approach. There was only one moment when the cars got a little too close, when Oscar locked up and ended very close to Lando at turn 4. We gave this feedback to Oscar, and as soon as he crossed the finish line, he radioed the team to apologize.”
So far, there is no sign of cracks in McLaren’s ecosystem, which gratifies Stella as much as the technical performance. Norris leaves Spielberg very strengthened. Before the race, his solo escape was expected, but the three DRS zones allowed Piastri to stay in his slipstream for 20 long laps.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Lando. “I couldn’t recharge the battery well, which made me vulnerable. After the pit stop, I finally managed to get the maximum charge, and from that moment, I felt more comfortable.”
The tight battle with Piastri, though tough at times, highlighted Norris’s race and gave him an important confidence boost. Now Lando is ready for the Silverstone crowd, his home race. Norris has never won two races in a row, and never before has he had a better chance. The English track should suit McLaren perfectly, confidence will be high, and there will be no team orders. However, he will have to beat Piastri, the less predictable factor in an almost ideal scenario.
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