Oscar Piastri has revealed that his 2025 championship fight with Lando Norris could have cost one of them their McLaren seat if the battle had turned bitter — a stark reminder of what was at stake during their remarkably cordial rivalry.
The Australian made the admission while reflecting on a season that saw McLaren’s two drivers engage in one of the most amicable intra-team title fights in recent Formula 1 history. Unlike the acrimonious partnerships of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost or Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, Piastri and Norris maintained mutual respect even in the heat of competition.
When Tension Could Have Boiled Over
The 2025 season offered multiple flashpoints. Norris led the early running before Piastri seized control in Saudi Arabia, setting up what appeared to be a genuine two-driver title fight. Team orders at the Italian Grand Prix tested the partnership when Piastri was instructed to hand second place to Norris after a slow pit stop dropped the Briton behind his team-mate.
Piastri argued his case over the radio in the moment, but by the time he crossed the line third, the fire had gone out of his protest. It set the tone for the remainder of the campaign.
Contact between the two at the Singapore Grand Prix start and again at the United States Grand Prix Sprint produced anger in the moment, but handshakes afterward. When Norris gained the upper hand at the Mexican Grand Prix and fans questioned whether McLaren was favouring the British driver, there were still no harsh words exchanged.
“Because I think we both knew the situation we were in of trying to beat each other and only one of us could win. We knew all of that. But it never, it never got nasty. And I think that’s a really important thing, because I think it would have been very easy for last year to have got nasty.”
Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Piastri explained the dynamic that kept the partnership healthy.
“And well, there would have probably been, if it really got bad, the question of whether one of us was even sat here doing this interview wearing orange. But I think just the team dynamics is so important to protect going forward.”
Information Sharing Under Pressure
Piastri also revealed that the McLaren team-mates continued sharing data and technical information between their respective sides of the garage even as the title fight intensified — a level of cooperation that would have been unthinkable in some previous intra-team rivalries.
“You can’t hide, and it goes the opposite way as well. You know if you’re in that position where someone else has done something and you go, I need to work out how to do that, you want as many tools at your disposal as you can get.”
The Australian acknowledged that both drivers likely had moments where they wanted to keep certain insights to themselves, but recognised the long-term cost of that approach.
“So, yeah, I think everyone probably has their little moments where they go, ‘okay, I want to keep that one to myself’, but at the end of the day, if you start going down that route, eventually it’ll bite you when you probably the least want it.”
Stronger for the Fight
Contrary to expectations, Piastri believes the relationship actually improved as the stakes rose.
“We get asked about our relationship as team-mates quite a lot. And I think probably it was actually better at the back end of last year than it was, you know, say, the first six months that we were getting to know each other, just because we know each other more. And we spend so much time around one another every year.”
McLaren have endured a difficult start to the 2026 season as teams adapt to the new technical regulations, but Piastri believes the foundation laid during last year’s title fight has prevented early setbacks from fracturing the team dynamic. The absence of lingering animosity from 2025 has kept the focus on solving the new car’s challenges rather than managing internal conflict.
Both drivers will need to rediscover their 2025 form as the season progresses, with the next rounds offering an opportunity to claw back ground on the early pace-setters.