It will take a lot for any team to beat McLaren in 2025 as they look set to claim both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ titles with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
The intra-team battle between the two contrasting personalities has been a fascinating subject in 2025, not least because of how well McLaren have handled moments that have usually shattered relationships.
Norris held his hands up in Canada after he clashed with his teammate, while Piastri has moved on swiftly from his penalty in Silverstone despite losing out on crucial points.
For a team with a rich history of fallouts between teammates, McLaren have handled the 2025 title battle incredibly well by doing one thing no other team, including Mercedes, has done in previous years.
Photo by Clive Rose/Getty ImagesMcLaren providing their drivers with equal opportunities
F1 teams are normally told to follow the Ferrari/Michael Schumacher recipe for success: pick the driver who is the fastest and back them for titles.
It worked for five years in a row for them, then again at Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, while Lewis Hamilton arguably had the backing of Mercedes more so than Valtteri Bottas.
Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok has highlighted how McLaren have taken the opposite direction and proven it’s possible to support two drivers at the top of their game.
“McLaren does an excellent job of parity. They give both drivers equal opportunities, almost to the team’s detriment. They do it really fair and equally, and you have to respect them a lot for that,” said Chandhok on the Road to Success podcast.
“They give them the upgrades at the same time. There will always be one driver that gets a better strategy, but they do their best to try and equalise it or make it work. It’s producing great racing.”
Perhaps this is to reward Norris’ loyalty after being at the team through their difficult period post-Honda, but it also represents a shift in mentality from an F1 team that could save the 2025 title battle.
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McLaren’s unique circumstances could save 2025 title race
Norris experienced another hammer blow to his 2025 title chances with a power unit-related retirement at the Dutch GP, conjuring up similar images to what happened to Lewis Hamilton in 2016.
The difference is that Hamilton only had four races to outscore Rosberg. While Hamilton won all four, the consistency of Rosberg throughout the season won him the title. Piastri has been consistent throughout the year, but luck has also impacted him.
Position Drivers’ Championship PointsPts 1 309 2 275 3 205 4 184 5 151 6 109 7 64 8 64 9 37 10 37
McLaren have the luxury of being over 300 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship, so it stands to reason this parity between their drivers will continue.
Strategy in F1 can be complex, but as long as Norris puts himself in a position to earn preferential treatment in the races (i.e. being the first to make a pit stop as the lead driver), McLaren’s stance on how they treat their drivers might just enable him to close what would normally be an impossible deficit in the standings with nine races left.