Led by Andrea Stella, McLaren F1 have had a dream start to the season as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri won a Grand Prix each to kick off this campaign.
During the season opener of the 2025 F1 season in Melbourne, Lando Norris left victorious, ending Max Verstappen’s 63-race streak at the top of the Drivers’ standings. Oscar Piastri delivered in China, leading home a 1-2.
It’s clear that McLaren currently have the fastest car, and they are the top contenders for the championships this season as things stand. However, this brings up the question of internal competition at McLaren F1 between Lando Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri.
McLaren’s Papaya rules
In the 2024 season, Norris was reigning champion Verstappen’s biggest rival and threat. In his sixth season with McLaren at that point, he was in the title hunt for the first time. However, McLaren faced a problem. Piastri was extremely fast at times, along with mistakes from the Brit, and strategy blunders from the team. In equal machinery, the teammates were bound to fight to wins especially having the fastest car on track.
Hungary and Monza
Many started to question McLaren’s ability when they made their drivers swap at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The team handed Norris the race lead by pitting him before race leader Piastri as they wanted to cover Lewis Hamilton. After the final pit stops of the race, Norris was in the lead with Piastri behind him.
Norris was quite resistant to the team’s relentless requests to swap positions. He had pulled out a 6s lead in the final stint with outstanding pace.
The swap only happened with three laps to go, giving Piastri his maiden win. This was seen as a messy episode, and it took the shine of the Aussie’s first victory.
The 2024 Italian Grand Prix was when we were introduced to the phrase ” papaya rules“. Monza was a golden opportunity for Norris to close the gap to Verstappen in the standings when he was 70 points behind him. A win would have closed the gap to 52 points.
However, by allowing polesitter Norris and Piastri to fight under the team instructions, they opened the door for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to do a one-stop and steal the race away. A ballsy move by Piastri on his teammate into the second chicane on the opening lap put a lot of scrutiny on the team considering the championship positions.
McLaren’s team decisions regarding the teammates’ battles on track has always be controversial, regardless of the outcome. It does however pose the question, are McLaren ready for a teammate fight for the Drivers’ Championship?
The interest of the team always comes first at McLaren F1, says Andrea Stella
When asked how McLaren F1 will handle internal competition during the season, Stella says that while the team is prepared, the sport is unpredictable so they can’t really say they are 100% ready.
Nonetheless, he says the team must come first every single time. He also praised the drivers for their cooperation to date.
“When it comes to the internal competition, you say, ready now. But in reality, we have tried to be ready for that for a long time now. Like all the things in Formula One, it would be very arrogant to say, ‘oh, now we are ready, or we were ready’.
“You learn because the scenarios are very complex. They never manifest themselves in the same way.So you just have to continue learning. And like you do on performance, on reliability, on operations, you also do in the way you manage a team.
“For me, what’s important is that the fundamental values that everyone brings to support the interest of the team is healthy and is according to our principles.
“And once again, I would say that we are very lucky with Oscar and Lando because it comes naturally. And so far, the fact that we have Oscar and Lando for me is just a way of elevating the performance of the team and the internal competition.
“I’m sure there will be situations, but I’m also sure that they will be reviewed and we will learn and we will grow even more the way in which we protect the interest of the team.”
