Lando Norris ‘hadn’t expected’ what he’s seen from Oscar Piastri, McLaren’s harmony is now ‘over’

McLaren entered the 2025 Formula 1 season as the big favourites to win back-to-back constructors’ championships plus Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri to lift the drivers’ title.

The Woking outfit ended their 28-year wait for another constructors’ title last term as Norris and Piastri helped McLaren to dethrone Red Bull. Their efforts to further improve last year’s car with the MCL39 have also helped McLaren firmly secure their status as the team to beat.

McLaren have won three of the first four Grands Prix to start the 2025 F1 season with Norris winning from pole in Australia plus Piastri winning from pole in China and Bahrain. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen winning the Japanese GP from pole is the one blot on their copybook so far.

Lando Norris did not expect Oscar Piastri to be ‘super-fast’ with McLaren’s harmony ‘over’

Norris’ Australian GP victory also knocked Verstappen off the top of the F1 drivers’ standings for the first time in 1,029 days. Yet the 25-year-old now leads the way by just three points to Piastri owing to the 24-year-old’s great response to spinning while running P2 in Melbourne.

And Blick even now reports that the harmony McLaren hoped for whilst having both of their drivers in the title fight is ‘over’ after Piastri won the Bahrain GP in dominant fashion. Norris is also now ‘losing his nerve’ after complaining about the MCL39 amid his struggles in Sakhir.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

Another of the problems that Norris is encountering after the first four rounds of the season is that the Briton did not expect Piastri would be so ‘ice-cold’ and ‘super-fast’. His realisation of the Australian’s threat has broken the coherence McLaren were dreaming about keeping.

McLaren expected Lando Norris to lead their constructors’ title defence over Oscar Piastri

Norris now heads to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend desperate to hit back at the threat Piastri is posing having been unable to challenge his McLaren teammate in China and Bahrain. He was also arguably McLaren’s second-fastest driver in Japan but qualified ahead.

Piastri lost more time than Norris due to strong winds in qualifying for the Japanese GP with the pair ultimately separated by just 0.032 seconds. The 2020 FIA F3 and 2021 F2 champion also showed stronger race pace than Norris, but could not enjoy the chance for an overtake.

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Bahrain also saw Piastri at his best whilst Norris laboured to qualify in just P6 and 0.426s off his teammate’s pole position time. Now, McLaren no longer view Norris as their lead driver over Piastri, having expected the Briton to begin 2025 as the one guiding their title defence.