McLaren admit Lando Norris could get ‘upset’ with team orders stance after losing championship lead to Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri will arrive for the 2025 Miami Grand Prix leading the Formula 1 drivers’ championship for the first time after eclipsing his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

First place in the drivers’ standings changed hands between the McLaren pilots last time out at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after Piastri won on another challenging weekend for Norris. The Australian now has a 10-point lead on the Briton ahead of the F1 Sprint event in Florida.

It was at the first Sprint event on the 2025 F1 calendar that Piastri began to overturn his 23-point deficit to Norris, as well. While the latter started the year with pole position and the win at the Australian Grand Prix, the former has been the in-form driver since F1 raced in China.

Now, Piastri heads to this weekend’s Miami GP leading the F1 drivers’ standings for the first time in the 24-year-old’s career. He dethroned Norris after only 35 days, far from the 1,029-day reign that Red Bull star Max Verstappen held before the 25-year-old won in Melbourne.

McLaren think team orders are inevitable even if they ‘upset’ Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri

Norris won his first F1 race at the 2024 Miami GP, but he returns to Florida 12 months on in search of a big response after back-to-back difficult rounds. McLaren saw Norris call himself ‘clueless’ after qualifying P6 in Bahrain and also crash without a Q3 lap time in Saudi Arabia.

The Bristol-born star will now want to hit back, starting in Miami. But his challenge could be restricted as McLaren team principal Andrea Stella notes that Norris and Piastri are ‘aware’ that team orders will be used if required, even if enforcing them could ‘upset’ either driver.

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

“I can’t exclude that this may happen,” Stella has outlined to RacingNews365. “There are advantages to having two extremely competitive drivers, and I think the advantage in the long term is dominant – and that is what you want, in my view.

“But there could be episodically some situations which may leave one of the two drivers a little upset because the team made a decision or because of how the race unfolded. So, we are very, very aware of this.

“Internally, we don’t talk about ‘if this happens’, we talk about ‘when this happens’, because we are aware it is a very difficult business. We are aware as a team, and Lando and Oscar are aware, as well.”

Oscar Piastri is living up to his promise of forcing McLaren to avoid making him the No2

The threat of team orders has been on the cards for Norris and Piastri all year, as Stella said before racing began that the constructors’ championship will ‘always’ be McLaren’s priority. Woking chiefs are desperate to retain the title after winning their first since 1998 last term.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

But the Australian is also doing exactly what he said before the year started, as Piastri wants to avoid McLaren issuing team orders. He set a goal to start strongly and establish a position that can prevent being made the No2 and, after a tricky start, has taken control at McLaren.

Now, the pressure is on the other side of the McLaren garage to respond. Norris crashed at Jeddah’s Turn 4 after trying to match the pace that Piastri could carry through the corner in qualifying. He will not want to fall any further behind in the standings with another mistake.