Heading into the final 10 races of an intriguing title fight, David Coulthard has laid bare the mentality that Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris need to win it \u2013 and that\u2019s taking \u201cpleasure\u201d in the their team-mate\u2019s \u201cfailure\u201d.<\/p>\n
After all, the \u2018mate\u2019 in team-mate is a \u201cmisnomer\u201d.<\/p>\n
David Coulthard: \u201cAnd you take pleasure in their failure\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
McLaren is on course for the F1 2025 championship double, as the team could wrap up the Constructors\u2019 title<\/a> at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, round 17 of the 24-race season, with the Drivers\u2019 to follow.<\/p>\n That, however, is a more closely contested event \u2013 although both contestants are McLaren drivers.<\/p>\n Piastri is leading the standings on 284 points, just nine ahead of his British team-mate Norris in a season that has seen momentum swing between the McLaren pairing.<\/p>\n But while even McLaren CEO Zak Brown reckons there could yet be a proper flashpoint despite McLaren\u2019s papaya regulations, both Piastri and Norris are adamant there\u2019s a line that they won\u2019t cross in the title fight.<\/p>\n After all, said Norris, \u201cIn 200 years no one is going to care, we\u2019ll all be dead.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d he continued about Piastri, \u201che is the guy I want to beat more than anyone else. But if I don\u2019t beat him, then that\u2019s just because he has done a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n Oscar Piastri v Lando Norris: F1 2025 head-to-head stats<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n His words, though, have been taken with a pinch \u2013 if not a bucket \u2013 of salt by former McLaren driver Coulthard.<\/p>\n The Scot himself had a gentleman\u2019s agreement with his team-mate Mika Hakkinen back in 1998 that whoever led the first lap at the 1998 Australian Grand Prix would win the race. <\/p>\n Coulthard, having taken the lead from Hakkinen, gave the position back to the Finn in the closing laps with Hakkkinen winning the race, and going on to win his first of two World titles.<\/p>\n Coulthard never won a championship.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a warning to both Piastri and Norris.<\/p>\n