Oscar Piastri jokes about his McLaren rivalry with Lando Norris: “We’ll try to repeat 2007”. Oscar Piastri comments humorously on his rivalry with McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

The current calm
Almost twenty years after one of the most controversial seasons in McLaren’s history, the Woking-based team has started this season almost perfectly: with five wins in six races, the team leads both the Constructors’ Championship and the Drivers’ Championship, the latter with Oscar Piastri. Between the Australian and Lando Norris, his teammate and currently his biggest rival for the title, tensions have yet to flare up, with McLaren managing to maintain a certain calm within the team, also thanks to the now-famous ‘papaya rules,’ which require the two drivers to respect each other without risking on-track contact.

Past rivalries
This is a principle McLaren has repeatedly emphasized, also to avoid internal conflicts between drivers that have sparked controversies and tensions in the past: from the ones between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost to what happened in 2007 between Lewis Hamilton, a rookie in F1 at the time, and Fernando Alonso, in his first year at Woking. A series of incidents that not only led to an unmanageable atmosphere within the team but also benefited Kimi Raikkonen, who capitalized on the feud between the two drivers to secure his first and only World Championship, which remains the last one for a Ferrari driver.

Oscar Piastri’s goal
The concern is that what happened 18 years ago might happen again, but in this regard, Oscar Piastri shared his thoughts with a joke: “We said we’re trying to repeat 2007,” he commented. “We clearly know our strengths. We’ve always been close. It’s going to be a good battle, there will be weekends when Lando is stronger, and others when I will be. We’re very aware that we want this success for as long as we are with McLaren, which is a very long time for both of us. We know we’ll have to fight. We both want to become World Champions, obviously. But we don’t just want one opportunity for success. We want it for the years to come, and this is something important and easy to keep in mind for us and for the whole team.”

The Australian also shared his thoughts on whether it’s easier to face his teammate rather than a rival: “We pretty much know how the others drive,” he responded. “We know our strengths and maybe some of our weaknesses. So, from that point of view, we have more information, but that’s true for both of us. We both know we have the same car, so that eliminates one factor, but there are other complications when you have the same car. You can have the same strengths and weaknesses on track. With the difficulty of following other cars, nine times out of ten, the driver starting in front will likely stay there until the end. So, it’s difficult. Then there are the pit strategies and everything else that becomes a factor when you’re in the same team. There are positive aspects to this.”