Oscar Piastri’s relationship with Lando Norris ‘better than ever’ amid F1 title fight

Oscar Piastri has revealed that his strong relationship with McLaren F1 teammate Lando Norris hasn’t been impacted by their intense fight for the title.

Heading into this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, Piastri trails his teammate by 24 points.

Piastri was in the driving seat in the title race after Zandvoort, leading Norris by 34 points.

However, since then, Piastri has finished on the podium just once.

Inevitably, there have been a few flashpoints between the pair throughout the season.

Norris ran into the back of Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix, with Norris taking full responsibility for the clash.

Norris’ aggressive overtake in Singapore also irked Piastri, leading to repercussions that were later dropped by McLaren.

Speaking openly about his relationship with Norris, Piastri said on the Beyond the Grid podcast: “I think it’s either exactly the same or, honestly, probably better than it has been.

“It’s better, if anything, because we just know each other more now we’ve been together for our third year as teammates, so we just slowly got to know each other more and more.

“Maybe there are short-lived emotions off the track, but I think we’re both quite good at just letting things die down and again, leaving things on the track.”

McLaren’s ‘Papaya Rules’

McLaren’s rules of engagement have been heavily scrutinised throughout the year.

Following Norris’ robust move in Singapore, Piastri felt they should invert the positions to keep things fair, particularly as McLaren had earlier forced Piastri to let Norris through after a slow pit stop for the latter.

On the whole, though, Piastri believes McLaren deserve credit for letting them race each other.

“I don’t think it’s that difficult, really. It is the way we’ve always operated,” Piastri explained.

“When that’s your default, ultimately, you need to do something different to kind of not treat each other equally, which is probably more difficult in some ways.

“The team has done as good a job as they can of trying to be fair and trying to treat each other equally.

“We’ve been free to race for the year, which is nice for us to have it in our own hands as much as we can. And I think nice for everyone watching as well.

“I think it’s obviously difficult when you’re racing your teammate, and, obviously, things have happened this year. We’ve come together a couple of times.”