Oscar Piastri reveals what he’s really thinking when he goes wheel-to-wheel with Lando Norris at McLaren

Follow us on Google Discover

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will resume their Formula 1 title battle at the Dutch Grand Prix this weekend. Piastri is just nine points clear of his McLaren teammate, and they appear to be the only two contenders.

McLaren didn’t manage back-to-back one-two finishes in any of the first 10 Grands Prix. They’ve now done so in each of the last four.

That arguably indicates that both drivers are raising their level as a first world championship comes into view. On the back of their collision in Canada, for which Norris took full responsibility and suffered the consequences, the duo were involved in a thrilling battle at the Austrian GP.

Piastri’s penalty handed his teammate victory at Silverstone, but the Australian won a strategic battle in Belgium. They diverged again at the Hungarian GP as Norris went for a one-stop, and while Piastri caught him on fresher rubber, he couldn’t execute a clean pass.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are trying to keep McLaren ‘united’

Speaking exclusively to the McLaren site, Piastri insisted that his relationship with Norris remained the same despite the different ‘competitive environment’. McLaren had the fourth-quickest car in his first season, and while they started winning races last year, the drivers’ title was always a long shot.

At the start of the current season, Piastri signed a new contract that could keep him at Woking until the end of 2030. Only 12 months earlier, Norris had penned an extension that included an option for 2029.

It’s unclear whether McLaren can maintain their dominance in the sport’s new era, but both drivers clearly have the highest level of confidence in the team’s management. After making long-term commitments, they know they must ‘keep the team united’.

And that’s what’s in the back of Piastri’s mind when he goes up against Norris on track. He’s been warned on the radio a couple of times in recent races after narrowly avoiding his teammate when locking up his brakes.

“Our relationship hasn’t really changed,” he said. “The competitive environment is quite different this year, yes, but our relationship is pretty much the same. The way we work together, how we try and help the team, and what we want from the car, it is all the same.

• READ MORE: Lando Norris has one weakness that ‘everybody’ in the Formula 1 paddock has now identified

“I think we’re both very conscious that we want to have success with this team for a long time. That is not lost on either of us. Healthy competition is important, of course, but it is important to keep the team united, and I think we both have that in the back of our minds.”

Anthony Davidson pinpoints what Oscar Piastri ‘never’ does on the radio

David Coulthard says tensions will ‘boil over’ at McLaren, and there are already ‘little signs’. He’s one of many pundits to predict that the two drivers will fall out before the end of the season.

They both have the chance to become McLaren’s first champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. And given the ever-changing nature of F1, they may not have this chance again.

Indeed, George Russell says Fernando Alonso was expected to win 10 titles when he clinched his second back in 2006. Nearly two decades on, he hasn’t added to that tally.

The feeling is that Piastri may be the calmer of the two McLaren drivers in the highest-pressure moments.

Sky pundit Anthony Davidson notes that Piastri ‘never’ shouts on the radio, perhaps because he’s ‘very aware of how the media works’ and wants to control the external narrative.