Lando Norris doesn’t hold back on dynamic with teammate and rival Oscar Piastri

The 2025 drivers' world championship has been fought between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the early phase of the season. The Aussie driver has emerged with the upper hand, and his McLaren teammate has now responded with how the two have remained good teammates amid a developing rivalry.

Last year, McLaren had prioritized Norris in the upgrade package delivery, which helped him fight for the drivers' title mid-way through the season. This resulted in Piastri playing the second driver role for the majority of the championship campaign.

However, 2025 has started differently as the two McLaren drivers have equal cars this time around, and the 24-year-old has stunned the Woking-based squad with his prowess behind the wheel of a racecar. This has endangered the Briton's hold of the team's priority as the two are now having to fight on tarmac, with the team refraining from interfering.

Opening up on the intra-team dynamic, the reigning vice-champion revealed how the two want to stay off of creating a civil war-like situation and said (via BBC):

"As a number one, it is a constructor... But then there's the individual championship. Everyone's seen plenty of championships as team-mates turn sour and go in the wrong direction. And that normally leads to many things, like a domino effect of things starting to fail. And that's what we don't want."

"We know we still want to race. We're free to race against each other as individuals, but we also know our sole purpose is to race for McLaren, the team, the name we race under. And that's something we're both very proud of doing."

In the nine races held so far, Piastri has emerged with a 10-point lead over his teammate.

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McLaren would have to contain the brewing rivalry between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

Lando Norris (L) and Oscar Piastri (R) at the F1 Grand Prix of Spain - Source: Getty

Lando Norris had initially started the season with a victory at Oscar Piastri's home race. The latter finished the race in ninth after having his car stuck in the grass for over a minute, leading him to lose heaps of positions.

However, since then, the championship leader has seemingly not put a foot wrong and has worked on his consistency as he won five of the following eight Grand Prix. With Norris and Piastri fighting to bag the drivers' world championship, the team would have to incorporate certain measures, as McLaren team principal Andrea Stella admitted (via Sky Sports):

"Managing Formula 1 drivers that compete for the same team on a fast car and in a quest for the championship is always going to be a difficult matter."

Lando Norris has won two races in the early phase of the 2025 season, with Max Verstappen bagging the remaining two race victories.