McLaren development driver shares how Oscar Piastri has kept ‘peace’ with Lando Norris

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Oscar Piastri is closing the gap to McLaren teammate Lando Norris. While relations have remained outwardly cordial up to this point, the tension is bound to increase.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown knows his drivers will ‘tangle’ at some point. Norris maintained a clear advantage for the first 18 months of their partnership, but now that Piastri is significantly closer, it will become more difficult to manage the dynamic.

The Briton holds a healthy 12-2 lead in qualifying and a 10-4 advantage in the races. But the gap in the championship is what truly matters and it stands at just 32 points, making it conceivable that Piastri overtakes Norris after the summer break.

Indeed, in the last seven rounds, the Australian has won the points battle by 114 to 98. He’s beginning to demonstrate his championship-winning potential on a more consistent basis.

The biggest potential flashpoint between the two drivers so far came at the Hungarian Grand Prix last month. Piastri squeezed past polesitter Norris at turn one, but then relinquished the lead by virtue of a less favourable strategy.

McLaren instructed Norris to move over, but he demanded that Piastri catch up to him before he did so. After expressing much reluctance and making the McLaren pit wall audibly anxious, the 24-year-old eventually slowed down on the pit straight to hand the victory over.

Gabriel Bortoleto says Oscar Piastri ‘calms McLaren down’

Speaking on the Motorsport Brazil YouTube channel, McLaren development driver Gabriel Bortoleto discussed the relationship between the two. He feels that it’s Piastri, rather than Norris, who will maintain harmony within their ranks.

If he was ‘hot-tempered’, then McLaren could be in trouble. But instead, his unflappable and conciliatory demeanour echoes through the team.

Bortoleto also made reference to the infamous partnership between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes. They were close friends at first but then the burden of battling for the title took its toll.

• READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Hamilton and Rosberg collided on three separate occasions, twice in the 2016 season. The German won the title by just five points that year and retired immediately after.

“Oscar is a very, very cold person,” F2 driver Bortoleto said. “This guy is alright, ‘let’s go in peace’, he’s very like that in any situation. So I think that because he’s like that, it calms the team down a lot and doesn’t generate frustration.

“That’s how it was with Hamilton and Rosberg for example. I think he will be the guy who keeps the peace. If he would be a little more hot-tempered person, there would be problems there in my opinion.”

Why Oscar Piastri wanted Lando Norris to be his first F1 teammate

The stakes at McLaren were much lower last season. Piastri was still acclimatising to F1, and McLaren weren’t able to fight for podiums until halfway through the season.

According to his mother, Piastri felt he didn’t have to get ‘close’ to Norris at first. ‘Everyone knows how good Lando is’, so it would have been unrealistic to expect otherwise.

But now the 23-year-old is almost Norris’ equal, and McLaren boast arguably the best car on the grid. Race victories are up for grabs, and they could conceivably enter 2025 as favourites in both championships.

This will be a true test of what team principal Andrea Stella is made of. McLaren will feel they possess the strongest driver line-up in F1, but that brings challenges as well as blessings.