If it were not for the 2023 Formula One season and the remarkable 21 wins claimed from 22 Grand Prix by the Red Bull team, this year from McLaren would be hailed as one of the most dominant years in the last decade.
Now 299 points ahead of Ferrari in second place, the papaya liveried cars can wrap up the constructors’ championship come the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. And with the leader in the driver’s title race now 97 points ahead of Max Verstappen in third, its clear this year’s champion will be Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris.
Come the chequered flag on Abu Dhabi, one driver will be elated by becoming only the 35th ever F1 champion, the other will be devoted at the missed opportunity, which may only come once in a driver’s career. In fact with the 2026 high regulation changes coming for the F1 car design and new power units, it is highly likely another team will ace the new rules, leaving the McLaren duo battling for the odd win and podium.
Piastri visibly distressed in Silverstone
This one season opportunity and the highly differing emotions which will afflict Pastri and Norris is already becoming apparent during the recent resurgence of Lando’s season. After Norris’ unfortunate crash in Canada were he lost ten points for a nailed on fifth place, the British driver found himself now 22 points behind his Australian team mate.
Yet wins for Norris in two of the last three Grand Prix have slashed the deficit now to just 9 points. However, Piastri has suffered some misfortune since the Montreal weekend and the pain of losing out to his team mate has become apparent. At the British Grand Prix, Piastri whilst leading was nailed with a ten second penalty by the stewards for a rare infringement behind the safety car.
This handed Lando Norris the victory and a visibly distraught Piastri was forced to face the media. Choking back the emotion, the Aussie was asked how he felt about the penally handed down from race control. “Yeah, I’m not gonna say much. I’ll get myself in trouble, so… well done, to [Nico] Hulkenberg. I think that’s the highlight of the day, so… yeah, I’ll leave it there. Apparently you can’t brake behind the safety car anymore,” Piastri said whilst trembling with inner rage.
It was clear the sense of wrong Oscar was feeling when in the race he made the forlorn request for the team to swap their drivers back around. This was never going to happen given it was not a team mistake which had cost their driver so dearly, something Piastri later admitted deep down he didn’t expect. “But if you don’t ask you don’t get, said Sky F1’s Martin Brundle. “That’s the first time we’ve seen the angry side of the calm, silent Aussie assassin.”
Norris ‘choked’ in Canada
Norris was as equally emotional when he threw away a ten point gift by crashing onto the rear of his team mate’s car in Canada. Although this was indeed the fault of the British driver, the impact on the championship for Norris was plain to see in his interviews.
Then again in Budapest, Piastri executed almost a perfect race strategy, chasing down pole sitter Charles Leclerc, only to be undone by his team mate choosing a one stop strategy. McLaren had pitted Piastri extremely early in the first stint, in an effort to undercut the Ferrari ahead.
This committed him to a two stop race, whilst a mistake from Norris at the start when losing out to Russell and Alonso, forged him to run long on stint one and in effect luck into the race winning strategy. Piastri again appeared to have suffered a body blow having been part of creating a thrilling end to the Hungarian Grand Prix.
He was relentless on the fresher rubber in closing down a twelve second lead created by Norris and with three laps to go, the pair were duelling for the lead of the race. “I pushed as hard as I could,” said Paistri ruefully. “After I saw Lando going for a one [stop strategy], I knew I was gonna have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here.
Zak Brown claims losing driver will decide celebrations
When asked about the strategy the team had selected for him, Piastri was unclear as to whether it was the right choice.“Yeah, I don’t know if trying to undercut Leclerc was the right call in the end, but yeah, we can go through it after,” sighed the Australian. If the pain of losing a race to your team mate is this high now, what will it be like come the final chequered flag, when one McLaren driver is champion and the other is not?
The CEO of McLaren Racing, Zak Brown was asked by The Race in Budapest how the team was proposing to handle this inevitable situation. He admitted he had not yet dealt with the potential outcomes for his drivers, stating: “We’ll just sit down and actually have a conversation and go ‘Right, one of you is going to win, it’s going to be the best day of your life – one of you is going to lose, how do you want us to handle that? You want us to jump up and down and celebrate this guy [who] won?’
McLaren: The almost too ‘nice’ team
“We’re fully aware and sensitive to how you celebrate that situation. And I think we’ll just sit down with the drivers and come to an agreement: ‘One of you is not going to be the champion. How do you want us to act?’. That’s the way we think. It comes back to thinking about our people.”
Zak brown and Andreas Stella are redefining what it means to be a Formula one team. Their papaya rules of engagement so far have been followed to the letter, although Piastri now twice has come close to taking out his team mate. This cosy family feel Brown and Stella have brought to the paddock, is all well and good, yet racing is all about high blood, passion and ruthless competition.
McLaren may well be the nicest racing team on the grid at present, but no matter how hard they try, the desperation of losing a nailed on chance to become world champion, but for your team mate, has surely some spicy moments down the road. Someone will become the bad guy, whilst the other may then get all the treats as the teachers pet.
Remarkable Ferrari admission for retaining Vasseur
As Formula One entered the summer break, the usual contractual dance between Toto Wolff and his drivers was set to continue. Both Russell and Antonelli are out of contract come the end of this season, and as was the case last tome driver contracts were awarded, no white smoke is expected in Brackley before racing resumes at the end of the month.
Yet in a surprise move, Ferrari announced they had extended their team bosses tenure in Maranello with the proverbial “multi-year” deal announced intended to project some stability to the Ferrari team. Fred Vasseur had increasingly come under fire in the Italian media for failing to deliver on the team’s 2024 end of season promise, where they had the fastest car across the final two triple header weekends.
Leclerc and Sainz closed down a 79 point gap to McLaren which is existed with six race weekends of the year remaining. They and the team came up just 14 points short, of claiming the constructors’ championship for the first time since 2008…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
