Lando Norris just showed his real feelings about Oscar Piastri with a pointed Lewis Hamilton remark

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Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will spend a fourth season as teammates at McLaren in 2026, but their relationship fell under a spotlight as they fought over the 2025 F1 title.

The papaya pals emerged as the clear title favourites for the first time in their respective F1 careers at the start of 2025, as McLaren hit the ground running with a dominant car. Norris won the 2025 season-opener in Australia, and Piastri took five wins in the first nine rounds.

McLaren’s decision to switch their focus to the 2026 F1 regulations in July let Red Bull rival Max Verstappen fight back from a 104-point deficit to Piastri and 70-point deficit to Norris after 15 rounds. But Norris held on to win the F1 drivers’ championship by only two points.

Tensions appeared to simmer in Woking as Norris and Piastri duelled over the 2025 drivers’ title, though. McLaren faced accusations about favouring Norris over Piastri, which the use of team orders in Italy plus strategic decisions in Belgium and Hungary only served to help.

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Lando Norris claims his rivalry with Oscar Piastri is ‘as perfect’ as Lewis Hamilton and Fernando’s time at McLaren

Despite the outside noise amid their 2025 F1 title fight, Piastri claimed his relationship with Norris was “better than ever”. But Norris may actually feel otherwise, having just compared his and Piastri’s rivalry with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton’s intense time at McLaren.

READ MORE: Lando Norris’ first F1 drivers’ title in 2025 was defined by seven key moments

McLaren gave Hamilton his F1 debut in 2007, as they also welcomed Alonso to Woking after winning back-to-back drivers’ titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006. But that partnership did not work out, as Alonso felt McLaren favoured Hamilton and he left the team after one year.

Yet Norris has now claimed that his internal rivalry at McLaren with Piastri is “as perfect” as Hamilton and Alonso’s partnership. Most infamously, Alonso blocked Hamilton in McLaren’s pit box during qualifying for the 2007 Hungarian GP, after questioning the team’s decisions.

Norris said on stage after receiving the Autosport Champion award: “The first ever race that I watched was Lewis and Fernando in McLaren, where they had just as perfect of a rivalry as me and Oscar have nowadays.

“So, to watch that [the 2007 British Grand Prix], to see that, remember that’s my first ever race, get to see Lewis on the podium. When you see the fans, you see the energy, and I wondered, [at] seven years old, what that would be like.

“And last year, I got to live it and to feel it. And it was one of the most special moments of my life.”

Oscar Piastri could leave if the situation at McLaren does not improve in 2026

Prove me wrong: McLaren do not need to change their papaya rules for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

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Piastri is the longest-serving teammate that Norris has had at McLaren, with 2026 due to be their fourth year together. Norris shared the garage with Carlos Sainz in his first two years in F1, before he spent two campaigns next to Daniel Ricciardo until Piastri then joined in 2023.

But how much longer they spend together remains to be seen, as reports now suggest that McLaren are monitoring Charles Leclerc’s situation at Ferrari as Piastri could quit at the end of 2026. Piastri is said to be frustrated with how events unfolded at McLaren through 2025.

McLaren did not act on Piastri’s request to switch places at Silverstone, when he received a controversial penalty for a safety car restart infringement that gifted Norris his debut home win. Also, Norris beat Piastri to win in Hungary after McLaren let him do a one-stop strategy.

The biggest incident between them in 2025 came when McLaren told Piastri to hand Norris back P2 in the Italian GP, having undercut the latter who the team had assured would be in front if he let the former pit first. Piastri adhered to McLaren’s request but he questioned it.

Also, McLaren blamed Piastri for crashing into Norris in the F1 Sprint at COTA, which saw the team remove the sporting repercussions that they had imposed on the latter. McLaren had made the decision to internally penalise Norris for banging wheels with Piastri in Singapore.