Oscar Piastri expects a ‘favour’ from Lando Norris after what Mario Andretti saw

McLaren may have two drivers’ championship contenders on their hands in 2025 with Grand Prix winners Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris trying to dethrone Max Verstappen.

When the chips fall at the end of the 2025 Formula 1 season, it will have been 17 years since a McLaren driver won the championship. Lewis Hamilton was the last to pilot a McLaren car to the biggest honours in F1 during what was the Briton’s second season on the grid in 2008.

Norris almost brought the championship back to the McLaren Technology Centre in 2024 as the Briton emerged as a title contender for the first time. But Verstappen held on to seal the Dutchman’s fourth title in a row as the Red Bull racer bagged a 63-point advantage to Norris.

Mario Andretti believes Oscar Piastri will want a ‘favour’ from Lando Norris for the 2024 Sao Paulo Sprint

In the end, Norris even found himself under vast pressure to remain second in the standings as Charles Leclerc finished the term just 18 points behind. Piastri secured fourth place in the drivers’ standings with 292 points, marginally edging Carlos Sainz on 290 points for Ferrari.

Piastri also impressed the 1978 F1 champion Mario Andretti with how he improved in 2024. What particularly stood out to the Italian-American was how Piastri handled McLaren telling him to gift Norris the F1 Sprint win at the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix to help his title dreams.

READ MORE: Every error that cost Lando Norris points in his failed 2024 F1 title challenge

Norris blitzed the field in Sprint Qualifying at Interlagos only for Piastri to pull a late surprise and steal pole position. The Australian then had his 25-year-old teammate covered until Lap 22 of 24 when McLaren told Piastri to give Norris the Sao Paulo Sprint win before a late VSC.

Andretti feels it was a sign of Piastri’s ‘class’ to give up the lead of the Sprint in Sao Paulo to Norris as he knew the Briton was McLaren’s only drivers’ title contender. But he also claims Piastri will expect Norris to pay it back to the 23-year-old after showing he is a team player.

“I really liked what Oscar demonstrated and also the fact that he is a team player, you could see that in Brazil,” Andretti told RacingNews365.

“He figured, ‘It’s the end of the season, my teammate is in a better position,’ and he yielded and showed everyone that, ‘Yeah, you know what? I’ll let him by and hope that the favour is returned sometime down the road’.

“To me, that showed a lot of class and awareness of what his position is.”

Lando Norris ‘repaid the favour’ by gifting Oscar Piastri the 2024 Qatar Sprint win

Norris will feel he has already paid his debt to Piastri for the Australian gifting him the Sprint win at the 2024 Sao Paulo GP as the Briton gifted the Sprint win back to his McLaren partner at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix. It was always Norris’ intention to repay the favour from Brazil.

“As much as I would love to win, I would love to win a Grand Prix a lot more than a Sprint. A sprint to me doesn’t mean a lot,” Norris said after giving Piastri the Qatar Sprint win. “Oscar helped me and gave me that opportunity in Brazil and I’ve repaid that favour.”

Unlike in Sao Paulo, Norris was also the faster of the McLaren teammates in the Sprint at the Lusail International Circuit as Piastri needed his colleague’s aid to defend from Mercedes ace George Russell. Norris gave Piastri a slipstream to stop Russell from completing an overtake.

Once the threat of an overtake by Russell was quelled, Norris pulled over so Piastri won the Qatar Sprint on the dart to the chequered flag. They took the finish line only 0.136 seconds apart with Russell 0.274s behind, having lost out to Piastri on the exit from Turn 1 on Lap 1.