Lando Norris addresses potential title rivalry with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri as the pair gears up for a title battle

Lando Norris feels that even if both he and Oscar Piastri are involved in a title battle, it would be the responsibility of both of them to make sure they manage the situation correctly. At McLaren, the team has put together two very high-caliber drivers in Norris and Piastri.

While it certainly has its perks, as more often than not, the results from the car would be maximized, there are a few downsides as well. If there is a title on the line and you have two very fast and very ambitious drivers, both of them would want the title, even if it came at the expense of their teammate.

In 2024, Norris had a decent advantage over Piastri; hence, that situation didn't unfold. In 2025, the Australian will be in his 3rd year, and in terms of learning, the progress seems to be there, and he should be expected to be a lot closer. With McLaren expected to bring one of the best cars on the grid, this could mean that the duo could potentially be fighting each other.

When that happens, it could lead to tensions between the two, and both would have to make sure that they don't compromise the overall results for McLaren. Talking to Autosport, Lando Norris addressed the possibility of something similar happening this season with Oscar Piastri and said that it came down to the two drivers on how they act responsibly when this happens. He said:

"It's a different year, how we start the year just changes everything and I know Oscar's hungry for a championship. For sure he's capable of winning a championship, but at the same time I'm taking one race at a time and that's our mentality of the team. Everyone knows that we want to beat each other and you want to be the top dog in the team and that's normal, that's the expectation."

"But I don't think it changes anything, I hope it doesn't in some ways, I know probably in some ways it will because that's competitiveness, every driver wants to go out and prove their point, but there's also just responsibility on myself, on Oscar, Andrea, the teams around both of us as drivers to handle these situations correctly."

---

Oscar Piastri addresses potential Lando Norris clash

Oscar Piastri also addressed the potential clash with Lando Norris if the duo does end up contesting for the title. The Australian also felt that unless the duo was taking points off each other in a manner that McLaren was getting compromised, they would be doing a good enough job. He said:

"In terms of managing myself and Lando, obviously our target is to have every weekend be an easy one-two and make sure that we then fight for that. Of course, we're going to be racing each other from the start. We're all starting on zero and I want to win the world championship this year and hopefully we have a car that's capable of doing that from the start."

"Everyone is going to have that mentality, you have to, but we are going to be able to race each other and we've shown time and time again that we can race each other hard but cleanly. As long as we're not taking points off of the team then that's how we're going to go racing."

Norris has been the more dominant of the two at McLaren until now but Piastri has only had two seasons in F1. The Australian is improving every season and if the trajectory continues, he would be closer to the Brit this time around.