Piastri vs. Norris: Who Will McLaren F1 Favor?

A month before Formula 1 hit the track for the first time in 2025, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri already held a quiet kind of confidence: “I can become World Champion this year,” the Australian driver stated bluntly in February. 

The self-assurance was inspired, if not a bit premature. The pair of McLarens hadn’t even commenced a test lap. And if one of the two was likely to end up on top it was Lando Norris’ No. 4. Last season, the British driver missed out on the World Drivers’ Championship trophy by 63 points to reigning title holder Max Verstappen. And, despite McLaren’s higher-ups insisting neither driver was prioritized as the team’s “No. 1,” Norris’ title fight meant Piastri often got the short end of the strategy stick. 

In 2025, Norris topped the standings for the first four races. At Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Piastri’s championship prediction became a possibility. 

Piloting the Mercedes-powered No. 81, he started the race weekend trailing Norris, failing to top any of the three free practice sessions. Even after his teammate’s car crumpled into the wall during the third qualifying round on Saturday, Piastri couldn’t quite bump Verstappen’s lap time. The Aussie made the most of his second-place start on Sunday under the lights and launched ahead to beat the Red Bull to the first corner. Verstappen, who went off track to keep the race lead and claimed Piastri forced him off, was handed a five-second time penalty. 

It wasn’t until mid-way through the race when Verstappen made a pit stop that McLaren faced a split decision: With Norris in front—pulverizing his tires while his teammate trailed behind with a fresh set and renewed pace—would the team ask Piastri to ease pressure to prioritize Norris’ standing or instruct the British driver to swap in order to stretch the faster car’s lead? The shimmery orange machine branded with the number four veered into the pit lane and his teammate soared to the top of the timesheet. Piastri finished the final 14 laps without pressure from the pack behind him. Norris crossed the checkered flag in fourth, nine seconds off his teammate’s pace, with a recovery drive from a 10th-place start. 

But the McLarens’ proximity posed a more fundamental question that transcended Sunday’s race: Who does the team favor for the championship odds? 

If the 2025 F1 season is the teammate title battle main course, 2024 was the appetizer. Last year included a series of pit wall-instructed team orders that prevented the two cars from tangling on track. It was often Piastri who played the support role while Norris fought for the trophy, but the former insisted in the offseason that it was a team effort with both drivers sacrificing positions. When the first race of the 2025 season rolled around and the Australian Grand Prix’s home hero was briefly told to hold his position, it looked like the 24-year-old could be slipping into the same role as the previous year despite his claims that the team was “starting on a clean slate.”

Now with two competitors leading the World Drivers’ Championship and 19 races to go, McLaren faces the unique challenge of having teammates, armed with the best car in the sport, on equal footing. Both drivers now have the same number of career wins in F1: five, despite Piastri participating in 82 fewer Grands Prix. 

But the team has already made decisions off-track, like extending Piastri’s contract until at least 2028. Norris’ contract is up in 2027. And even as both drivers threaten to squeeze each other in the margins of performance, McLaren has kept up an image of camaraderie and cooperation. 

“We’ve got our two number ones,” McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said following Sunday’s race. “We’ve yet to see them have an epic battle. I think that day is coming, I’m looking forward to it.”

When the day comes, it could be more of a personality clash than a skill test. Piastri has aligned his racing alongside the likes of Verstappen, without the mouthiness characteristic of the Dutch driver: a silent assassin. Norris, on the other hand, insisted he “can be a world champion but doing it by being a nice guy.” The 25-year-old’s indecision in split-second moments, poor pole-to-win conversion rate and self-criticism has garnered backlash and raised questions about his ability to win a title. On Wednesday, former F1 driver Sebastian Vettel said Norris’ vulnerability makes him a great role model.

McLaren’s choice to sign two young drivers with seemingly opposite driving styles and personas went against the status quo. And it has seemed to work. But how long until only one can come out on top? Norris, who joined McLaren in 2019, has been the favored future for the Woking-based team. Then came Piastri.

Just 10 points separate Piastri from Norris in the standings. With the latter’s dominant drive in Miami last year, the championship order could change yet again as soon as the next race. Verstappen, whose nickname of “The Inevitable” rang true with an eye-watering qualifying lap on Saturday in a less-performative car, lurks just behind the two McLarens. 

It was always bound to be a close season—possibly the closest in the sport’s history—defined by minuscule gaps in performance and single-digit deficits in the championship order. For the fans (especially F1’s newer post-Netflix era fanbase), that means an entertaining season. For McLaren, that means the potential for greatness at the risk of repeating history. 

But the championship leader, as calm and collected as ever, brushed off any comparisons or needling questions about team dynamics after he sped to victory in Jeddah: “I’m not that bothered by the fact that I’m leading the championship, but I’m proud of the work and the reasons behind why we’re leading the championship.”

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