Oscar Piastri has explained why he is viewing his friendly relationship with Lando Norris as being critical to maintain into the future.

The Australian leads the Drivers’ Championship by three points over Lando Norris, with an intra-McLaren challenge for the title the dynamic that has taken shape over the first third of the season.

Oscar Piastri: Lando Norris and I will never cross the line

Last season, Norris enjoyed enough of a pace and experience advantage over Piastri to build a significant enough lead in the title chase that, as the battle with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen intensified, McLaren weighed in behind him by applying ‘papaya rules’ in the closing stages of the season.

Up until Norris had opened up this advantage as Piastri’s own title challenge faded, McLaren was particularly keen to maintain fairness and equality between its driver pairing – and this is a stance that hasn’t changed over the winter.

Both Norris and Piastri have taken race wins this year, with the resulting points dilution allowing Verstappen to remain in the hunt as the Dutch driver occupies third and 25 points down on Piastri’s lead.

McLaren’s MCL39 has proven to be the most consistent of the frontrunning cars over the eight race weekends of F1 2025 so far, but what has been notable about the McLaren drivers’ relationship with each other is that it has remained cordial and friendly – a very difficult dynamic to maintain when teammates face off against each other in the quest for a title.

The two drivers remain off the leash to race each other, with full trust placed in them by CEO Zak Brown and team boss Andrea Stella that both will keep their responsibilities to deliver for the entire Woking-based squad and not allow their own personal goals to result in damaging incidents or collisions.

Speaking ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, where Norris is gunning for his third win of the season while Piastri aims for his fifth, the Australian said both he and Norris had come into 2025 aware that their most immediate rival might be each other – allowing them time to prepare for this eventuality.

“I think, going into the year, we knew that it’s impossible to have your own personal goal directly in parallel with the team’s,” Piastri told media, including PlanetF1.com, in Barcelona.

“And that’s something we’ve both been very frank about, something that the team has been very aware of.

“Because, at the end of last year, we felt that if we went into this year with a car as strong as we finished with, we’d be in this situation. I think we’ve been very good at being open about it, just talking about it.”

While he and Norris are aiming for a maiden title win this season, McLaren’s current level is such that the Australian reckons several more title fights are on the horizon – meaning maintaining harmony between the pair is a top priority.

“We’re never going to do anything that’s unsportsmanlike or puts the team in a bad light or puts ourselves in a bad light. I think that’s just not who Lando and I are,” he said.

“Of course, we want to go out and beat each other every weekend, but we’re never going to cross that line that’s going to cause damage that can’t be repaired. Because, I’ve said it a few times now, we don’t want just one opportunity at this.

“We’re both at McLaren for a very long time after this year, and we want to fight for the championship every single year. I think we both understand it’s pretty unwise to try and win one championship and bring the house down with it.”

It’s a unique situation, as Piastri acknowledged. It’s not so long ago since Mercedes encountered fallout between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as the former childhood friends fell out in similar circumstances, and the Australian praised McLaren for its hands-off handling of things.

“I don’t think every team would handle it as we are, no,” he said.

“At the same time, there are not many teams in our situation with a car and drivers that are strong enough… we’ve got a very good lead in the Constructors’ Championship at the moment and, whilst we’re continuing to build that gap, I think it’s the right thing to do to let us both try and fight for a championship.”

There will come a point where he believes the team should start imposing team orders as it closes in on the titles – but only if one of the pair develops a big enough lead to warrant some level of support.

“I think, once it’s mathematically impossible, probably,” he said.

“But no, I think we both want to win or try and fight for this championship and score our own points.

“Of course, if there becomes a time, later in the year, where it is genuinely impossible – or very close to it – then, then, yes, maybe that will change, but I don’t see that happening for a very long time.”

Having had a run of momentum that saw him take wins in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Miami, Piastri was beaten by Norris at Imola and Monaco, and said he suspects this pattern of momentum switching will continue through the year.

“It’s going to ebb and flow a bit through the whole year,” he said.

“But, I mean, I’m confident we’ve analysed what went a little bit wrong in Monaco.

“I mean, it still wasn’t a terrible weekend, but just not as good as some of the weekends have been this year for me. So we’ve looked at what we can do a bit better, and we’ll try and put that in action.”

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Piastri’s comfort with the dynamic at McLaren will be welcomed by Zak Brown, who outlined his position on his driver’s assured equality during an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com.

“For us, it’s quite an easy thing to work through,” Brown explained.

“Our drivers aren’t asking for favouritism, they’re asking for fairness, and that’s what they get.

“I think they’re very comfortable; may the best man win.

“Hopefully we give them a car in an environment where you’re going into the last race and it’s the two of them competing, and they didn’t take points off each other to the point where it lets Max [Verstappen] or someone else get in there.

“But if so, then whoever wins the Drivers’ Championship has done a better job.”

This fairness is so important to Brown that he is prepared to see neither Norris or Piastri emerge as victors, if it means having had to rein in one in favour of the other.

“I’m comfortable with that,” Brown insisted.

“I’m comfortable with that because the other scenario is, how do you take a driver out of the championship that’s competing for the championship? That’s not right at all.

“If you had a second driver that wasn’t competing for the championship, then I get it; sacrifice [Yuki] Tsunoda’s qualifying because he’s giving Max a tow or whatever.

“I get compromising the second car at Red Bull because it’s not competing for the Drivers’ Championship, so it’s an easy decision to make.

“But when you’ve got two drivers first and second in the championship and are separated by less than one second place finish, how do you possibly even consider standing one down into a supporting role?

“There’s just no way we will.”

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