McLaren confident of smooth dynamics between Norris and Piastri in 2025

Dominika Jordan
Mar 13, 2025, 04:19 AM ET

MELBOURNE, Australia — McLaren is optimistic about maintaining harmony between drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, even as the team enters the new season as serious contenders.

In 2024, Norris and Piastri played instrumental roles in securing six victories and clinching McLaren's first constructors' championship of the millennium. Preseason testing further bolstered expectations that the British team holds an edge over its competitors heading into Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.

Successful teams often grapple with managing internal competition, and McLaren was no exception last year. The team stumbled with a poorly executed team orders call in Hungary and faced criticism over the "papaya rules" in Italy. However, team principal Andrea Stella remains confident about Norris and Piastri's ability to race harmoniously in 2025, just as they did for the majority of last season.

"Definitely, like any other team, we have looked at what could have been done better and what we had done well last year, and actually we were quite proud of what we achieved, even in terms of internal competition," Stella stated on Thursday. "The respect, the relationship inside and outside the car, the head-to-head racing that happened at times between Lando and Oscar."

Stella added, "They offered a couple of situations that we reviewed together, but offered a large majority of how we want to see our two drivers work together, race together, and this actually gave us a good reference as to how we want to continue for the future. That was a very, very collaborative, supportive process, and I feel that we are entering this season in a very strong position."

Lando Norris, who is favored by bookmakers to clinch his first drivers' title, is equally enthusiastic about the prospect of racing against his teammate for victories.

"We're just free to race," Norris remarked. "We're happy to go against each other and compete. Of course, we have to know that we're going to be against each other a lot this season, and I hope we are. But our strength last season was helping one another and always giving each other a good amount of room, racing fair, those kind of things. And we need to maintain that. That's one of our biggest things as a team and our biggest goal."

As McLaren gears up for the 2025 season, the team is hopeful that Norris and Piastri will continue to build on their collaborative and competitive spirit, paving the way for another successful year on the track.