Last Updated on December 8 2025, 10:05 pm
At the season-closing 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Lando Norris delivered under pressure to secure his first Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship. A third-place finish was enough to clinch the title in a dramatic finale, narrowly edging out rival Max Verstappen.
For McLaren, it was a historic moment, their first Drivers’ Championship since Lewis Hamilton in 2008, and a fitting reward for a season of highs and lows, including strategic gambles, intense battles on track, and the constant pressure of competing at the very top.
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McLaren’s 2025 title triumph has ignited equal parts celebration and curiosity across the paddock. On one side, Andrea Stella’s emotional reflections on Lando Norris’s maiden championship capture the culmination of a long, steady rise back to the top. On the other, Zak Brown’s confident declaration that Oscar Piastri will also become world champion, and will do so in a McLaren, sets the expectation that the team’s golden era is only just beginning.
But when you read the two pieces together, an amusing tension begins to emerge. Norris has finally achieved the dream he’s been chasing for years, while Piastri is simultaneously being positioned as McLaren’s champion-in-waiting. The mood is celebratory, the messaging is unified, and the papaya glow is unmistakable, yet beneath the surface, you can sense the potential for a uniquely McLaren dilemma.
If both drivers continue on this trajectory, 2026 may not just be a title fight between teammates; it could be a philosophical stress test of McLaren’s increasingly famous “fair chance” doctrine.
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When Fair Play Becomes ‘Too’ Fair
If there’s one theme running through both Andrea Stella’s emotional sermon and Zak Brown’s enthusiastic prophecy, it’s that McLaren have become Formula 1’s self-appointed guardians of fairness. The team that once lived in the shadows of Hamilton–Alonso and Prost–Senna politics now operates like a motorsport monastery, governed by strict Papaya Virtue.
The message between the lines? Success is shared. Pressure is collective. Titles are… rotational?
Zak Brown: Oscar Piastri will also become world champion with McLaren!
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is certain: Oscar Piastri, who came up short in the final stages of the 2025 season, will also become world champion, and he’ll do it in a McLaren. Brown said after the race: “Oscar will become world champion. I am convinced that he will become world champion in a McLaren.”
Brown says, “It’s great to have two top drivers, despite all the adversity, and all the talk we’ve heard for so long that what we’ve achieved is impossible: to have two fantastic race drivers, who have each won seven races, who really enjoy competing against each other, and who are a joy to work with.”
And the American emphasises: “There has never been any disagreement between them. They have both been a little grumpy with Andrea (team boss, Stella, note) and me from time to time, but I think that’s good. We push each other. It’s just a great achievement.”
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Stella reacts to the result in Abu Dhabi
Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal since January 2023, embraced Norris, his world champion, heartily on the night in Abu Dhabi, not ashamed to shed a few tears. Stella then said: “I was bursting with pride for our team. We had a fabulous Sunday, and the best possible race against Max. I will remember this evening for the rest of my life.”
“For me personally, it’s also very special because I narrowly missed out on the title here in Abu Dhabi with Ferrari in 2010. That’s why I knew before the race that it could go either way.”
“We made life a little difficult for ourselves at times, so it’s all the more relieving now that we’ve secured the Constructors’ World Championship title, and now also have the Drivers’ World Championship in the bag with Lando.”
‘The pressure was enormous. We had made it our mission to give both drivers a fair chance at the title. That certainly didn’t make the situation any easier. We tried to handle it in typical McLaren fashion. And I think we succeeded.’
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Stella: “Norris is champion today, Piastri is champion tomorrow”
Glowing admiration for both drivers makes it clear: the team didn’t just simply let them race; they practically held hands through every strategic discussion. Splitting strategies wasn’t about performance — no, no, it was about emotional equilibrium. Mediums for Lando, hards for Oscar, harmony for everyone.
“We had very intense discussions before the weekend here about how best to proceed. We felt that the hard tyres would probably be the better choice in the Grand Prix, so we split the strategy, Lando started the race on medium tyres, and Piastri on hard tyres. It wasn’t about controlling the Grand Prix, but about keeping all options open.”
“This wonderful end to the season also makes up for what happened in Las Vegas and Qatar. To be honest, there was pain and disappointment. But you have to be able to deal with those feelings, too. And I’m delighted to see how we as a team have responded to these adversities.”
“We stood together, we didn’t let ourselves get rattled, there was no finger-pointing.”
‘The gap between Lando and Oscar was very small for most of this year.”
“Today, we have a world champion in Norris, and I hope we will have a world champion in Piastri in the coming years.”
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When Fair Play Goes Full Papaya:
But now that Norris has sealed his long-awaited championship, the question becomes uncomfortably hilarious: What happens next year, when Piastri’s “turn” arrives? Zak Brown didn’t just hint at it — he nearly issued a mandate. According to him, Oscar will become world champion in a McLaren. Which is lovely… unless you’re Lando Norris reading that over breakfast.
It raises a tantalising, chaotic possibility: if McLaren find themselves competitive again in 2026, could Norris be expected to repay the cosmic balance? Not such an absurd question following the goings on at McLaren over the last two seasons.
Imagine the radio… “Lando, Oscar is currently P2 in the standings and would really appreciate a confidence boost. For the sake of Papaya Harmony, please lift and coast… for the next 18 laps.”
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A Serious Question Beneath the Papaya Shine
Beneath the attempt at humour and the warm glow of McLaren’s feel-good narrative, lies a real competitive dilemma that 2026 may expose. If the team once again finds itself with two title contenders, the margin between fairness and favouritism becomes razor-thin.
Stella and Brown insist that both drivers are treated equally, yet by publicly framing Piastri as an inevitable future world champion, could they have unintentionally set expectations that could influence decision-making in tight scenarios on the pit wall?
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Strategic calls, tyre offsets, pit-stop priorities, and undercut opportunities often decide championships by millimetres, rather than miles. Even without conscious bias, a team’s internal narrative can shape instinctive choices in high-pressure moments.
If Piastri is perceived as ‘the one whose turn has come,’ the risk exists that borderline calls, a slightly earlier pit stop, a more aggressive strategy gamble, or a compromised overlap in track position could lean subtly in his favour.
This doesn’t suggest malice, nor deliberate manipulation. But it does highlight a structural tension. The more McLaren stress equality, the more scrutiny they will face if one driver consistently benefits from marginal calls. And, after Norris finally broke through for his maiden championship, any shift that appears to nudge the balance toward Piastri, however innocent, will attract fierce debate.
As McLaren re-enters the rarefied air of genuine title contention, the team may discover that the hardest challenge isn’t building a fast car. It’s proving to the world, and to their own drivers, that fairness still means letting the championship unfold organically, even if the papaya narrative quietly hopes for a different outcome.
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Lewis Hamilton left his Mercedes Formula One team after twelve seasons of huge success together. In fact in F1 history the partnership between the team and the seven times champion was the most successful ever.
Yet following the failure by Mercedes to pit Hamilton at a crucial time in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which cost him a record eight drivers’ title, Hamilton was never the same driver again.
In 2022 Lewis failed to win a Grand Prix for the first time in his career and as if to add insult to injury, he was outscored by his new junior team mate, George Russell, who won his maiden Grand Prix in Brazil to clinch the inter-team mate battle.
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That year saw a big change in the FIA car design regulations as the new ground effect car specifications changed the face of F1 racing and Mercedes, unlike in 2014, missed the brief. Much was expected of the zero pod W13 car design, but early F1 analysts expectations were quickly dashed.
“We got it wrong,” Hamilton complained early season after being lapped by Max Verstappen at the Emilia Romagne Grand Prix. “Nothing we do…seems to work” said Lewis after a difficult Friday session in Montreal. “We’re trying different set-ups… for me it was a disaster”.
As George Russell became the points leader out of the Mercedes driver’s, Hamilton’s narrative was that he was the driver doing extreme setup experiments to help the team understand the car. “We are obviously not fighting for the championship. But we are fighting to understand the car and improve and progress through the year,” Hamilton claimed at the British Grand Prix.
Whilst in 2023, Hamilton was able to beat his team mate, it was yet another winless season for the British driver. Come the early European season, Hamilton was publicly criticising the team for failing to listen to him in terms of improving the handling characteristics of the W14…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
A senior writer at TJ13, C.J. Alderson serves as Senior Editor and newsroom coordinator, with a background in online sports reporting and motorsport magazine editing. Alderson’s professional training in media studies and experience managing content teams ensures TJ13 maintains consistency of voice and credibility. During race weekends, Alderson acts as desk lead, directing contributors and smoothing breaking stories for publication.
