The fight for the 2025 drivers’ championship is increasingly between the two McLaren drivers. Oscar Piastri leads Lando Norris by 16 points, with their closest rival now 81 points adrift.
There is no greater test of intra-team harmony than a fight over a world championship. The most famous example also occured at McLaren, when Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost fought for the 1988 and 1989 world titles.
The fight between the pair descended into acrimony over the course of their two seasons together. Senna won the 1988 title but angered his team mate with his tactics at times. Prost hit back the following year, but a series of flashpoints pushed the relationship to breaking point and he announced his plan to leave before colliding with his team mate to clinch the title at the penultimate round (Senna had his revenge the following year).
Neither Piastri nor Norris have won a world championship before, so the stakes couldn’t be higher. But the current points leader believes championship fights between team mates needn’t end as acrimoniously as some of those in the past.
“Everybody knows the history of Senna and Prost and that rivalry, and other rivalries outside of McLaren,” he said. “You don’t really need an example to set the culture that we have at the moment.”
McLaren has carefully managed the on-track rivalry between the pair when the team has felt it necessary. It permits its drivers to fight each other but is prepared to impose restrictions when necessary.
Piastri scored his first grand prix victory at the Hungaroring last year after Norris was instructed to allow him to overtake, having inadvertently got ahead of his team mate due to the timing of McLaren’s pit stops. Later in the season Piastri handed Norris victory in the sprint race at Interlagos to aid his championship chances; afterwards Norris returned the favour at Losail.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
The team continued to manage the rivalry between its drivers this year, as they started the season in position to fight for the championship. Norris won the Australian Grand Prix after Piastri was temporarily instructed not to attack his team mate as they lapped other cars in wet conditions.
McLaren have by far the most competitive car in F1 at the moment and are on course to clinch the constructors’ championship long before the end of the season. Piastri says it is in the interests of both drivers not to disrupt the harmony within the team.
“We’re both very conscious that we want this opportunity of having the car and the team in this position for many years to come,” he said. “The best way we can help as drivers, apart from driving fast, is by giving the team good morale and good confidence and making it a good team environment.
“That’s very important for us this year and going forward. We’ve all seen how it can go wrong, but we have a lot of reasons to push for it to not go wrong.”
He said the team’s approach to managing its drivers won’t change if they win the constructors’ title: “We’ve been free to race from race one.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2025 Hungarian Grand Prix
- Why Piastri believes he and Norris can avoid a Senna-Prost style fall-out
- Alonso felt “no pain” from back injury when he returned to car after missing practice
- Red Bull’s lack of pace on Friday looks like business as usual: Practice data analysis
- Red Bull warned over “unsafe release” after Verstappen throws towel from cockpit
- Verstappen still “in the game” despite 81-point championship gap – McLaren