Alain Prost believes the respective personalities of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri result in a natural advantage for one of them.

The two McLaren drivers are streaking away at the top of the championship table, with Piastri having opened up a 16-point lead over Norris who, in turn, is 15 points clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Alain Prost: Motorsport is a mind game

With the F1 2025 season evolving into what looks like an intra-McLaren battle for the title as the MCL39 has shown itself to be the fastest car on the grid, the attention turns to whether the more likely champion will be Norris or Piastri.

Norris is the more experienced of the two and has put in his time at McLaren, having joined the team in 2019 when the Woking-based squad could only dream of victories and championships.

Piastri only arrived in F1 two years ago but, like Norris, won his first Grand Prix last season and has since gone on to create a wave of momentum that Norris has never quite managed to do. With four wins from the last five races, following on from Norris’ Australian GP win, it’s Piastri who has made fewer mistakes and has been the more consistent of the pairing.

In the past, such intense teammate battles have led to incredible seasons of competition but rarely do such scenarios remain completely peaceful.

A prime example was in 2016 when Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, firm friends from childhood, fell out during what was a ferocious title fight at Mercedes. Less than 10 years before, in 2007, a rookie Hamilton went up against the veteran World Champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren in a battle that saw the Woking squad divided down the middle.

But the most famous example of two warring teammates is what happened at McLaren in the late 1980s when the two best drivers of the era, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, fell out while fighting for championships in the same car.

In 1988, the title went to Senna, before Prost got his revenge the following season, with Senna responding again in 1990.

Having experienced the same type of situation that Piastri and Norris are embarking upon at present, Prost believes the outcome of their battle will come down to psychological control.

“Motorsport is obviously played out on the track,” he told France’s l’Equipe.

“The reflexes and natural talent of the drivers are obviously essential. But motorsport is also played out in the mind. Psychology is a crucial element.

“It already was in my day, but social networks have made it even more crucial to a driver’s success. Nowadays, everything is shown, everything is experienced, everything is known.

“A lot of drivers are succumbing to this trend towards sharing. I think that in doing so, they put themselves under a lot of pressure. Others choose discretion and, in my opinion, with good reason.”

Piastri has become well-known for his quiet taciturn nature, in contrast to Norris’ more effusive and talkative personality, with comparisons being made of Piastri to the personality of the laconic Finn and 2007 F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen.

This more reserved personality, Prost believes, may give Piastri an edge.

“The new Championship leader, Oscar Piastri, doesn’t communicate much,” he said.

“We don’t know much about his life off the track. Naturally reserved, the Australian disappears between races and frees himself from this pressure.

“If I had one piece of advice to give him, it would be to keep quiet.”

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Norris’ willingness to be more self-explanatory of his on-track moments, mistakes, and thought process is an approach that the British driver has leaned into, in a way that he feels is true to himself and his personality and allows him to bring out the best in himself.

But Prost reckons Norris is handing something of an advantage to Piastri in their growing rivalry, and his actions may result in opinions disseminating through his team.

“Norris, on the other hand, is constantly on the networks. You see him in nightclubs,” Prost said.

“And what’s more, when he’s on the track, he admits his weaknesses. The more you show yourself, the more fragile you become.

“Lando is a driver whom I respect enormously, but if I had one piece of advice to give him, it would be to keep quiet and not to weaken himself like that.

“The consequences are enormous, and not just for his fellow drivers. There’s the image he’s spreading around the team.

“This is more important than you might think because it influences the impressions that the mechanics and engineers have, which are crucial.”

Prost’s assessment of the McLaren driver situation echoes what F1 broadcaster Tom Clarkson revealed on the F1 Nation podcast last week, as he paid tribute to the influence that former F1 driver Mark Webber is having on Piastri as his manager.

Having been on the losing side of a teammate battle with Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull in the early 2010s, Webber’s sharing of that knowledge might be ensuring that his driver doesn’t fall into a similar trap with McLaren – with whom Norris has been embedded for several years prior to his arrival.

But, as close to Piastri as Webber is, even he doesn’t know what’s going on in his driver’s mind at any given moment.

“Funnily enough, I had a catch-up with Mark a couple of days ago,” Clarkson said.

“I’m sure he won’t mind me sharing this, but he was saying that Oscar and his physio, Arthur, are both so mono-syllabic. He said, ‘I, as his manager, have no idea what either of them is thinking at any time’.

“We had to laugh about it. And then I was actually thinking, if you’re Lando Norris, that might wind you up actually… not knowing what your main rival is thinking at any moment would be frustrating.”

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