Lando Norris’ engineer sent key message to Oscar Piastri that helped him win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

McLaren are currently leading both championships although there was a change at the top of the drivers’ standings after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri has now won three of the first five races of the 2025 F1 season, and came out of his first intense battle with Max Verstappen this year with flying colours.

McLaren appeared to have a significant pace advantage over their rivals in practice for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but qualifying was a different story.

Lando Norris made the smallest error in qualifying that dumped him into the barriers, and Verstappen benefited from the smallest tow from Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda to take pole position from the Australian.

Verstappen’s five-second penalty for gaining an unfair advantage after cutting the corner on the opening lap after Piastri got a better launch played a key role in determining the outcome of the race.

However, there another driver who could have impacted Piastri’s victory, were it not for a piece of intervention by Norris’ team.

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Lando Norris’ engineer give Oscar Piastri advice on how to overtake Lewis Hamilton

Journalist Jon Noble was speaking on The Race F1 Podcast about how McLaren managed Piastri’s fifth career victory, and shared an interesting detail about the communication between the two garages.

He said: “There’s also a tiny little interesting back story that Andrea Stella told us tonight about just the way that the two drivers and two sides of the garage are operating.

“We saw Lando had his difficulties today overtaking Lewis Hamilton. He mismanaged the DRS activation zones and found himself overtaking then being re-passed. So, he lost some laps, which could arguably, you can say, cost him the podium finish with that time he lost.

“[He] potentially could have gone onto the back of Leclerc earlier and he could have finished third.

“So, Piastri also had to clear Lewis after the stops. So, obviously there was a risk that he would do it. But we saw on the TV instantly, straight past him, doesn’t hesitate.

“Beforehand, Norris’s engineer, Will Joseph, was messaging Piatri’s side of the garage, just saying, just to let you know, just to remind you that we had this problem with the DRS zone, make sure Oscar doesn’t fall to the same trap. Warn him that he needs to, if he’s going to pass him in that area of the DRS, make sure he doesn’t leave himself exposed into turn one.

“So I think it’s just a sign that they may be fighting for the world championship, those two sides of the garage, but there’s still a level of kind of cooperation and common sense there.”

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Oscar Piastri advice highlights McLaren’s determination to win the F1 constructors’ championship

Before the season started, McLaren made is clear that the constructors’ title was their priority, having won the championship in 2024 for the first time this century.

It’s the championship that earns teams their prize money, even if it’s not as highly regarded by some fans.

Norris went into the race in Jeddah with a slender advantage over Piastri, and while he wouldn’t have wanted Verstappen to win the race, the Australian standing on the top step of the podium equally harms his championship credentials.

However, he’ll recognise that he put himself in that situation by starting 10th, and only a magnificent individual performance from Charles Leclerc denied him a spot on the rostrum.

Piastri ignored team orders to pull off his move on Hamilton, but avoided the mistake Norris made that saw him have to overtake the seven-time world champion three times to get the job done.

Tiny moments like that can quickly add up when challenging for an F1 championship.