McLaren fans will be getting increasingly excited about the 2025 Formula 1 season.
After winning last season’s constructors’ championship, McLaren will be hoping to retain their title this year.
Before the campaign begins, the signs are already looking positive.
McLaren looked like the quickest team during testing with their bold new design led by Rob Marshall and Peter Prodromou.
Zak Brown and Andrea Stella will be delighted with the progress McLaren have made over the past two seasons.
They’ve managed to take regular steps forward throughout this current ruleset when other teams have struggled with their update packages.
McLaren enter the season as the favourites to win both championships but that comes with its own challenges.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will both have their sights set on replacing Max Verstappen as the reigning champion but will have to beat each other to achieve that feat.
Piastri just signed a new contract with McLaren committing his future to the team after two impressive seasons.
However, McLaren will know that if they want to win the constructors’ title, they can’t afford for their drivers to tangle on the track.
Last season, McLaren introduced their papaya rules to establish how Norris and Piastri should race each but speaking on the Pit Talk Podcast, former team principal Guenther Steiner made his feelings clear about the team’s instructions.
Guenther gives his verdict on McLaren’s papaya rules for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
Steiner was asked about the phrase ‘papaya rules’ that McLaren used last season for their team orders and simply replied: “A lot of b——-, huh!
“I never found out what it is and I asked Zak [Brown] directly, you know, ‘What is it?’ and [he said], it’s our rules, yeah.
“You know what it was, a lot of…” and Steiner’s opinion trailed off, but he made his distrust of the instructions clear in his answer.
READ MORE: Who is Guenther Steiner? All you need to know from F1 career to net worth
Brown has suggested that Piastri and Norris are bound to clash at some point during their careers as many of the best teammates have in Formula 1.
It’s up to the team to try and keep both drivers happy if they decide to back one over the other as the season goes on.
Oscar Piastri has already made private world championship admission ahead of 2025 F1 season
The approach of both McLaren drivers heading into the 2025 season is very different.
Although he’s currently the favourite for the title, Norris isn’t thinking about winning the championship at this stage of the year.
Instead, he’s being very circumspect and trying to downplay expectations – and potentially take pressure off himself going into the upcoming campaign.
READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine
Meanwhile, Piastri may not be saying anything too publicly about his chances, but privately he’s becoming increasingly confident.
Piastri stated that he’ll be the 2025 F1 world champion after last season’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
McLaren will need to decide how to implement their papaya rules this year to make sure any intra-team squabbling doesn’t cost them the constructors’ title.
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