Emerson Fittipaldi shares the ‘important’ stance McLaren must take in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s F1 title fight

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McLaren could win their first F1 drivers’ championship since 2008 in 2025, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris looking increasingly likely to face a straight fight for the title.

The papaya pals are pulling away from the pack almost every week, with Piastri now holding a 97-point lead over Red Bull’s four-time defending champion Max Verstappen in third place. Norris is also 88 points ahead of Verstappen after the first 14 of the 24 rounds due this term.

Seeing McLaren win each of the final four Grands Prix before the summer break, amid a run of six wins in the past seven races, has also seen Verstappen believe he will not win another race in 2025. The Dutchman was 22 points behind Piastri when he last won in May at Imola.

Only Mercedes’ George Russell has disturbed McLaren’s dominant run with his victory from pole in June’s Canadian GP since Verstappen overtook Piastri to win the Emilia Romagna GP. Russell also outscored the Red Bull ace by 10 points in the seven rounds since visiting Imola.

Emerson Fittipaldi feels McLaren must be ‘open and honest’ with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

Red Bull racer Verstappen’s demise is leaving Piastri and Norris with a straight fight to hand McLaren their first F1 drivers’ championship since Lewis Hamilton’s first title in the 2008 F1 season. And Emerson Fittipaldi loves that Zak Brown is letting their drivers fight for the title.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

McLaren CEO Brown is happy for Piastri and Norris to fight for the title, and is even willing to let them adopt different strategies to further their respective causes. So, Fittipaldi thinks it is “important” that McLaren are “open and honest” with Piastri and Norris to avoid any issues.

Fittipaldi told Motorsport.com: “I think it’s good for the race fans to see. I especially like that Zak Brown isn’t favouring either driver.

“I think it’s very important for the team to keep everything open and honest. As they further distance themselves from Max Verstappen, they can still battle it out amongst themselves. That battle is part of the show, and that’s exactly what the fans need.”

McLaren are letting Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris settle the F1 drivers’ championship themselves

McLaren want to let Piastri and Norris fight for the F1 drivers’ championship without having to issue team orders that favour one pilot over the other. The threat of Verstappen as a title rival reducing will now only widen the scope for Piastri and Norris to battle for glory, as well.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

But Fittipaldi is right to highlight the importance of McLaren CEO Brown and team principal Andrea Stella remaining “open and honest” with Piastri and Norris, given they are now also allowing their drivers to embrace strategies that could disadvantage the other papaya pilot.

Norris forced Piastri’s strategy in the Belgian GP when the Briton pitted for the hard C1 tyres and adopted a one-stop race when changing off the intermediate rubber at Spa. Piastri took the medium C3 tyres at his stop a lap earlier than Norris, yet he nursed those tyres and won.

One week later and Norris won the Hungarian GP with a one-stop strategy after again taking the choice to take the hard tyres (which were the C3 compound this time) at his stop. Piastri stuck with McLaren’s pre-planned two-stop strategy, but he would finish second by 0.698s.