Looking ahead to the 2025 season, McLaren was set to be the clear favourite to win both Formula 1 titles. Both the drivers’ title, with Lando Norris who is in a position to fight for it and, this time, to win it, and McLaren itself, which is well ahead of its rivals. Not only Red Bull, which has started the season well behind (only made up for by Verstappen), but also with a pace sufficiently wide of Mercedes and Ferrari.
Norris and Piastri don’t want a repeat of 2007 at McLaren
This was confirmed in both Australia and China. In both races, both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri shared the wins, making them candidates to win the drivers’ title, as well as having the constructors’ title well in their sights due to the speed of their car in the last year of the current rules, with many already thinking about next year.
Now, are they ready for an internal fight? The Briton was categorical in saying “absolutely” yes, although in Woking they don’t have very good memories of it. This is because Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso already experienced a time like this in 2007, when they lost in both championships, one because of failures to give preference to one of them, and the other because of the espionage case.
“We’ll do like in 2007,” Oscar Piastri replied when asked if he and Norris are prepared to deal with a duel between the two McLaren garages. ‘I didn’t used to watch F1 back then. What happened in 2007?’ asked a disoriented Lando Norris.
“Lewis and Fernando,” Oscar Piastri reminded him, about that fratricidal rivalry that ended up taking Kimi Raikkonen to the top in a year of scandals at McLaren that even saw them disqualified from the Constructors’ World Championship.
“Ah, yes, Lewis and Fernando! Try getting behind them in a pit stop and see how it ends,“ joked Norris, World Championship leader, recalling the qualifying for the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix.
”I don’t think there’s any team where the two drivers get on so well”
“Apart from Ferrari, I don‘t think there is any other team where the two drivers push each other so hard and that is a huge advantage,“ says Lando Norris. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are also another one of those very evenly matched pairings in Formula 1.
“Even if we all had the same car, if you have two fast drivers that team is always going to beat the rest,” said the man with the ‘papaya’ cars. “We have a great car and a great team, but also the two drivers push each other more than anywhere else. That way the best always wins. Although people like to talk about those laps when we were told to maintain position, we were free to fight at all times. Oscar and I drive differently but we ended up aligning our styles,” says Norris.
Of course, there are many fans, and even teams, who wonder what the difference is between the team led by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and the rest, who observe the papaya-colored car from afar.
Where is the difference? Why is McLaren so superior in this 2025?
Here we can say that there are several differentiating elements, but surely the tires are a crucial aspect for those from Woking. This is because the MCL39 is capable of quickly bringing the tires to the right temperature without this subsequently affecting it in terms of degradation.
Proof of this is what we saw in Albert Park, Australia, where Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were able to perform with the soft compound from Pirelli at 40ºC in the Saturday sessions and then, in the same way, in the Sunday race with the intermediate wet tires at 20ºC.
Last year there was talk that they were using something illegal. First there was a rumor that they were putting water inside the tire to cool the air inside, something that was refuted by the FIA in an official statement, as they have sensors that give the pressures in real time and would detect something like that. There was also talk of a hole in the area of the wheel cover that would act as a cooler, but in all the tests, and it is known that Norris was even given up to four extra post-race tests at Albert Park, there is nothing irregular.
In addition to this, McLaren have devised a sophisticated braking system that is quite a discovery for locals and strangers alike. It is capable of optimizing airflow to the front wheels thanks to aerodynamic appendages and a complex suspension system.
This element, together with what it entails, has amazed Christian Horner. The Red Bull team boss said in Australia that he had never seen anything like it. “It’s the greatest superiority I’ve seen in a race car in this particular aspect. Normally, if you heat up the tires too early, you pay for it in degradation, but the McLaren isn’t like that.”