Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris? McLaren could be forced to pick one, feels paddock veteran

Former F1 driver and pundit Martin Brundle believed that McLaren would be forced to pick between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the 2025 championship. The Woking-based outfit has made an excellent start to the season, as they have won five of the six completed races thus far.

The British team started the 2025 campaign as reigning Constructors' champions after securing their first title in 26 years at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Apart from leading the field in the Constructors' championship, its drivers are also 1-2 in the Driver standings, ahead of Max Verstappen and George Russell.

However, while appearing on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Martin Brundle believed that McLaren might have to choose between Piastri and Norris to have a clear favorite for the drivers' standings. He said:

"The problem McLaren have got is, if you wait until somebody is mathematically out of the world championship, that's going to be October, November time, in this championship. So, McLaren might have to take a decision before that to make a choice. It depends how it unfolds, but they won't be thinking about that until the summer break, at least," he said.

Brundle also claimed that he was confident that both McLaren drivers would take off points from each other, while Russell and Verstappen would consistently try to close the gap on the duo.

Oscar Piastri has a gap of 16 points to his teammate Lando Norris in the Driver's championship.

Oscar Piastri comments on the feeling of leading the title race

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri stated that he was "enjoying" the feeling of being the championship leader. He added that the feeling in the team was "completely different" last year before Miami.

Speaking with GPBlog, the Aussie driver reflected on the change of atmosphere in the British team and said:

"I think the position we're in is definitely very different from when we came into Miami last year. This was kind of the turning point for the team in a good way. This season, we're already on a roll so far, so it's quite a different atmosphere, quite a different position that we're in. But I've been enjoying it a lot.

"Every time you can go into a weekend knowing you've got a very good chance of winning the race, and if you do a good enough job, then you will win the race, that's always a nice position to be in. So I've been enjoying it."

Oscar Piastri has secured four race wins in the 2025 season compared to Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, one win each. The Aussie has also overtaken his teammate in terms of race wins despite starting his F1 career five years later than the Brit.

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Devang is a Formula 1 and NASCAR journalist at Sportskeeda with 3500+ articles and over 5 million reads under his belt. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and has a total experience of 3.5 years.

To keep up with the sport’s developments, Devang watches every single session and comes up with unique angles for the stories, from the readers’ perspective, using his expertise in the field. He strives to report accurate, ethical and relevant data by reading information from verified sources in the field, ones that are also trusted by industry experts.

Currently, his favorite drivers on the grid are Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo; he is particularly impressed by how the two drivers rarely lose their cool and approach everything with a smile on their faces. He classifies himself as a ‘Tifosi’ and is a Charles Leclerc fan.

Devang is a sports buff and when he is away from his keyboard, he watches other sports like cricket, tennis, badminton, and football, to name a few.

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Edited by Hitesh Nigam