McLaren verdict on Oscar Piastri v Lando Norris intra-team F1 battle

McLaren is encouraging Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to speak openly and “not leave anything in the back of the mind” to avoid any internal friction during the 2025 Formula 1 season.

McLaren’s dominant start to the new F1 campaign has made Piastri and Norris the main protagonists for the drivers’ title, with reigning four-time champion Max Verstappen reduced to an outside contender in an unpredictable Red Bull RB21.

This has led to concerns about a breakdown in the relationship between Piastri and Norris, which could hurt McLaren’s prospects and potentially allow Verstappen to claw his way back into the fight.

However, the Woking-based squad is satisfied with how Piastri and Norris have behaved both on and track so far, with team principal Andrea Stella insisting that they are both following the so-called ‘papaya rules’.

“The [pre-race] briefing is not getting tougher,” Stella said. “The conversations are the same that we always have.

“Obviously, when the two drivers start next to each other and there are 800 metres to corner one, you might have to reiterate every detail of the way we go racing together.

“But so far I can only be very grateful to Lando and Oscar who have approached this internal competition with a great sense of responsibility and pretty much sticking to the letter to what our racing principles and approach are.”

The dynamic between the two McLaren drivers was briefly in the spotlight during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, when Norris happened to leave the pitlane just behind Piastri and followed him throughout the warm-up lap.

This resulted in Norris getting a brief slipstream from Piastri exiting the final corner as he started his first flying lap in Q3.

Piastri, who slowed down and pulled to the side immediately after crossing the finish line, later remarked Norris’ supposed tactic as “cheeky” on the team radio.

But Stella was quick to play down the incident, stressing that McLaren actively encourages its drivers to speak up and express any concerns directly.

“It was a minor situation,” said Stella. We always tell our drivers 'Don't leave anything in the back of your mind. Anything, throw it out, say what you think’.

“In this case, Oscar's comment was to highlight a situation that we didn't discuss before.

“In itself, it's not anything too controversial, but we sort of did not discuss that before and we don't want to surprise our drivers with a situation that we didn't discuss before.  

“So a little bit to take on for the team rather than for the drivers, we have to do some more homework and be ready even more for the coming races which surely will be interesting.”