Oscar Piastri has shared how he believes his relationship with Lando Norris has changed during their title rivalry as McLaren teammates in F1 2025.<\/p>\n
Aside from a lurking Max Verstappen, the two McLaren teammates have controlled this year\u2019s Drivers\u2019 Championship and, barring an astonishing turn of events, the title will go to one of the pair.<\/p>\n
Oscar Piastri: My relationship with Lando Norris is \u2018better than ever\u2019<\/p>\n
While an intra-team battle for the championship usually ends in tension, if not outright hostility, the rivalry between Norris and Piastri has been without many flashpoints.<\/p>\n
Unlike the warring Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg 10 years ago, or the infamous feud between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna over 30 years ago, Norris and Piastri\u2019s quest for a maiden title has been free of drama despite the additional context of both being young drivers chasing their first individual glory in F1.<\/p>\n
This has largely been down to both drivers being kept in check by McLaren, with the Woking-based squad taking steps to ensure fairness and equality throughout the season, and quickly reacting to cool tensions via clear communication behind closed doors when things go wrong, such as when Norris collided with Piastri in Canada.<\/p>\n
Added to that are amenable personalities, with both Norris and Piastri showing a clear willingness to listen to their team and work together, something that has made McLaren\u2019s task easier.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, both drivers have had ebbs and flows in their respective form, with Piastri starting the season better and Norris showing an upward trend as the season comes to a close. Momentum is firmly with the British driver with three rounds to go, and, despite his dream first title slipping through his fingers, Piastri says his relationship with Norris is perhaps even better now than it was at the start of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s either exactly the same or, honestly, probably better than it has been,\u201d he told the\u00a0Beyond the Grid podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s better, if anything, because we just know each other more now we\u2019ve been together for our third year as teammates, so we just slowly got to know each other more and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom that side, it\u2019s probably in a better place than it ever has been. I think we\u2019re both the kind of people that, what happens on track, stays on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe there are short-lived emotions off the track, but I think we\u2019re both quite good at just letting things die down and again, leaving things on the track.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, from that side of things, that\u2019s really not changed. The way we\u2019re still trying to get the most out of the team is exactly the same. We still want broadly similar things from the team, I think.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, from the car, I think we probably have subtle differences that we\u2019ve probably worked out more and more, what each of us likes from a car setup direction, and what our strengths and weaknesses are, but the broad messaging that we want from the team is the same still. So from that side of things, it\u2019s all very similar to how it was two years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of that amenability, Piastri explained, is due to the fact that, even before McLaren returned to winning ways, the squad has been consistent in its operations and dealings to handle the dynamic between its two young hotshots.<\/p>\n
While Norris has been with the team longer, arriving in F1 with McLaren<\/a> in 2019, some four years before Piastri\u2019s arrival, the Australian said he has zero complaints about how he and Norris have been treated during a long campaign as rivals and teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s that difficult, really. It is the way we\u2019ve always operated,\u201d he said, when asked if McLaren\u2019s job of managing the relationship has been further complicated by the championship dynamic.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen that\u2019s your default, ultimately, you need to do something different to kind of not treat each other equally, which is probably more difficult in some ways.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think, it\u2019s obviously difficult when you\u2019re racing your teammate, and, obviously, things have happened this year. We\u2019ve come together a couple of times.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, those kinds of situations for a team, it is very difficult to keep everyone happy, because there is ultimately going to be at least one person who\u2019s not good, who isn\u2019t going to be happy, no matter how you tackle the scenario, it\u2019s impossible.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think the team has done a very good job on the whole of trying to be as fair as possible, as equal as possible, and, in terms of the equipment we\u2019ve had this year, it\u2019s been identical.<\/p>\n \u201cThe team has done as good a job as they can of trying to be fair and trying to treat each other equally. We\u2019ve been free to race for the year, which is nice for us to have it in our own hands as much as we can. And I think nice for everyone watching as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Lando Norris v Oscar Piastri: McLaren 2025 head-to-head scores<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n