The in-team battle between McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris is getting hotter and hotter with every passing Grand Prix, with both drivers trading blows on-track as the season progresses.
Speaking exclusively to F1 Oversteer, F1 commentator Alex Jacques touched upon what Norris needs to do over the remaining 10 races after the summer break in order to best his papaya teammate in Piastri.
Position Drivers’ Championship PointsPts 1 284 2 275 3 187 4 172
It was Norris who came out of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend with the victory, but Piastri retained the championship lead by completing a McLaren one-two, albeit by a small nine-point margin.
Despite being in the midst of a high-pressure championship battle, McLaren boss Zak Brown highlighted the fact that Norris and Piastri haven’t done anything to irk each other on track. He is confident that there won’t be any ‘bad blood’ between the two drivers.
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Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri need to do something ‘more dramatic’ in order to beat each other on track
When asked about Norris opting to do something different with strategy in Hungary as the trailing McLaren car at the time, Jacques told F1 Oversteer, “He was only in that situation because of his poor start, which wasn’t really his fault.
“It’s just the nature of where he got shuffled to on the circuit. In terms of how McLaren handled the strategies, they’re effectively operating as different sides of the garage now.
“The car that is trailing is always going to try something dramatic. So, when you’re trying to beat Max Verstappen in a straight fight, that might mean that you go a few laps shorter or a few laps longer with the strategy.
Lando NorrisOscar PiastriGrand Prix qualifying68Grand Prix result77Sprint qualifying03Sprint result12McLaren teammate head-to-head in 2025
“But when you know that the only other car in a dry race that can win is on the other side of the garage, it’s going to be Lando and Oscar throughout in all the dry races. In that situation, you then know that you’re going to have to do something more dramatic.
“So, I don’t think it’s a case of them managing the strategy. I think it’s more a case that the expectation will be whoever is running second on the road is going to have to try something dramatic because it is very, very difficult to pass an identical car when Lando and Oscar’s standard is so high.
McLaren want this year’s F1 title to be decided ‘on merit’, which is one of the reasons they have given their drivers the green light to race at every opportunity on track. Their dominant position in the current constructors’ standings is another reason why they are allowed to keep pushing each other.
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Lando Norris ‘can’t afford’ to keep losing track positions on the first laps of a Grand Prix
Jacques was also asked about the way McLaren are handling both of their drivers in comparison to the way Mercedes handled Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s relationship that turned sour amid their intense title fights throughout the 2010s.
The voice of F1 TV’s coverage replied, “I mean, you referenced Rosberg and Hamilton. That’s the last time we had an inter-team battle like this.
“It’s also the first time since 2009 that we’ve got two brand new drivers who are going to be first-time champions.
“So it heightens the whole thing. But you are going to see rolls of the dice. Obviously, in Belgium, it didn’t work for Lando; in Hungary, it did.
Photo by Mark Sutton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
“So, the one thing he can’t afford is to keep finding himself struggling for track position, which is where he’s been after the first effective racing lap at the last two Grand Prix. So that’s a key thing that he needs to focus on. Otherwise, he’s going to have to keep rolling the dice.
“And the expectation was that the one-stop would be much slower than the two. That was the pre-race expectation. So you heard him on the radio, didn’t you? ‘Yeah, why not? Let’s give it a go,’ because he knew that there was no other way that he was going to win the race.”
Following the conclusion of the summer break in a few weeks, the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort will be the next site of the McLaren duo’s sparring match. Lando Norris won last year’s edition, beating his teammate, who could only muster P4 at the chequered flag.