On the again of McLaren’s dominant begin to the 2025 F1 season, Oscar Piastri joked that he and his team-mate Lando Norris might replicate the 2007 season when McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso had been engaged in a fierce intra-team rivalry.
McLaren struggled to beat their rivals over a single qualifying lap throughout final weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, however their MCL39 got here alive in race trim, exhibiting really dominant efficiency.
Lando Norris received an amazing begin on Sunday and was difficult Max Verstappen into the primary couple of corners, however the Dutchman defended his lead exhausting, and the Briton was pressured to run large at Flip 2, shedding 4 locations and dropping again to sixth.
Nonetheless, he managed to shortly regain the locations he misplaced in the beginning, albeit he wanted to combat exhausting in opposition to Verstappen, who was keen to carry onto his place.
By the point he picked off Verstappen, Oscar Piastri had constructed an enormous hole and was imperious. Though Norris was always closing the hole to his team-mate within the the rest of the race, Piastri’s lead proved too large a bonus to overtake.
The Melbourne-born driver now finds himself atop of the drivers’ standings, sitting on 131 factors whereas Norris is second 16 factors adrift.
When requested if issues might get extra heated because the season is progressing, Piastri famous: “We stated that we’re attempting to repeat 2007. We clearly know that we’ve got our strengths.
“It’s at all times been shut between us. It’s going to be a very good battle. There can be weekends the place Lando is stronger, and weekends the place I’m stronger.”
“We’re very conscious of the truth that we would like this success for so long as we’re at McLaren, which is a really very long time for each of us. We’re conscious there’s going to be a combat.
“We each need to grow to be World Champion, clearly. However we don’t simply need one alternative at this success. We wish it for the following nevertheless a few years, and that’s an necessary and a simple factor to bear in mind for us and the entire workforce.”
Explaining the scenario, Piastri conceded that it’s generally troublesome for a driver to beat his personal team-mate because the automobiles are equivalent and groups often share setup knowledge and technique approaches between its drivers.
“We all know just about precisely how each other drives. We all know our robust factors, perhaps a few of our weaker factors. So from that facet you have got extra info, nevertheless it goes each methods. We each know we’ve received the identical automotive, in order that removes one issue.”
“However there are different issues with having the identical automotive. You may have the identical strengths and weaknesses on monitor. With how troublesome it’s to comply with automobiles, 9 instances out of 10, whoever’s in entrance in the beginning might be going to be in entrance on the finish.
“So it’s troublesome like that. Then there’s the pit methods and no matter that grow to be an element once you’re in the identical workforce. There are positives and negatives.”
