Just days after Lando Norris spoke of McLaren being the only team with “two good” drivers, that caused a headache for the team as Oscar Piastri chased Norris around Suzuka.

And that, said Christian Horner, is the “problem” with having two drivers who want to fight for the World title.

Christian Horner: That’s the compromise that inevitably comes with it

McLaren ran second and third for much of the Japanese Grand Prix, the team-mates nipping at Max Verstappen‘s rear wing.

But with Norris not closing the final two seconds, Piastri urged McLaren to let him through.

“I think I have the pace to get Max,” he said over the radio. Told that “this is Lando’s pace”, he reiterated: “Okay, like I said, I think I have the pace to get Max.”

McLaren did not issue team orders and the team-mates took the chequered flag still second and third with Norris ahead.

“Clearly the team were happy with the way things were,” Piastri said. “I mean, if I was in Lando’s position, I would also be pretty happy with the way things were. So that’s fine. Just said what I felt in the car and yeah, that’s how we want to go racing.”

F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers

👉 The results of the F1 2025 championship

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

But one could argue, and Piastri tried to, that how McLaren went racing in Japan cost them a third Grand Prix of the F1 2025 championship.

It is clear that had Red Bull been in McLaren’s position, Yuki Tsunoda would never having even entertained the question as he’s been told Verstappen is the “priority”. Simple as that.

Horner says McLaren are now experiencing the downside of having two drivers who believe they can beat Verstappen to the 2025 World title.

“I guess the problem they have is they have two drivers that are fighting for the Drivers Championship,” he told the media after the chequered flag in Suzuka.

“I guess the difficulty they have is that they’ve made a bed where they’re going to let them race. So that’s the compromise that inevitably comes with it.”

That wasn’t the only strategy call that McLaren made in Japan that raised eyebrows, Jacques Villeneuve accusing the Woking team of “trying to not win” after they copied Verstappen’s strategy with Norris.

Horner believes they missed a trick, saying: “The undercut was reasonably powerful. I mean, as could have, should have, would have, I’m sure up and down the pit lane.”

But when all was said and done, he reckons Verstappen had the pace on Sunday to reply to anything McLaren may have thrown at him.

“Max had the pace to cover whatever McLaren could throw at us,” he added. “And at different times, one minute it was Lando, the next minute Oscar looked very quick. But as you can see, overtaking throughout the field was almost negative.”

McLaren’s decision not to use team orders comes just days after Norris talked up the team’s two-driver attack.

“We are the only team that has two good drivers at the minute. That’s the big difference,” said the Briton. “If one of us was doing a lot worse, or one of us was not as strong… The fact we have two good drivers pushing each other makes a bigger difference than people expect and take acknowledgement for.”

It’s also made a huge difference in the standings. Although Verstappen sits just one point behind Norris in the Drivers’ Championship, Red Bull are 50 points down on McLaren in the teams’ battle with the second RB21 yet to score a single point.

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