McLaren told to take immediate action to avoid looking ‘dumb’

Guenther Steiner has urged McLaren to back Oscar Piastri over Lando Norris in the F1 2025 title race.

Piastri is just 25 points clear of teammate and main title rival Norris with seven rounds remaining after an awful weekend for McLaren at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Championship leader Piastri crashed out of both qualifying and the race on an uncharacteristically error-strewn weekend, while Norris could only qualify and finish seventh.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen dominated in Baku to claim his second consecutive victory that has seen the Dutchman close the gap to both McLaren drivers.

Former Haas team principal Steiner believes McLaren would look “dumb” if they ultimately allowed Verstappen to steal the championship from under their noses. 

“In the end, you want to win the drivers’ championship as well, not only the constructors’,” Steiner told The Red Flags podcast. “The team is more important than the driver, and the drivers are, as I always say, and not diminishing, just part of a team.

“And both cannot win, so instead of having two fighting and lose it all, you get somebody to win. As much as Lando is the face, and the favoured son, I think McLaren needs to be above that, and will be above that.

“It is crazy, but you have to do it. In my opinion, you have to do it to win.”

Steiner added: “I think they will take the decision, because otherwise, if they lose it because of that decision, how dumb do they look?

“I want to say, I think McLaren should have learned something out of last year, how they did it. It didn’t work. And if they do the same this year… Up to now, it was like, okay, Max is not a threat anyway.

"It looks good if you let them race. And it’s good, actually. It not only looks good, it’s good for the people which watch it.

“But now, it’s getting to a point where there could be some damage to the team in losing the drivers’ championship. So if you run the team, you have to prevent this by putting a rule down to make somebody unhappy. And so it should be.”

McLaren urged not to waste time

With Verstappen lurking, Steiner is adamant that the time has now come for McLaren to throw all their weight behind Piastri.

Asked when he would make the call to back one driver over the other, Steiner replied: “I would make it now.

“I would do, because I just want to make sure I win the championship. I said I think Max cannot get near, but if I already get the feeling there is a risk, why would I take it?

“And you also send a message to Max. He will do everything to win it.”