McLaren has emerged as the team to beat in the 2025 championship battle, but there are questions over who will triumph between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Norris is the most experienced driver out of the pair, having joined the grid in 2019, but he has only recently started to have a car that is capable of winning races.
McLaren has went through an impressive turnaround in the last 18 months and it has coincided with the arrival of Piastri, who looks just as capable of winning his first title having taken a dominant victory in China.
The team ran into problems last year when Norris was fighting Max Verstappen for the Drivers’ Championship, with Piastri taking crucial points away from his teammate at pivotal moments during the season which he admitted helped Red Bull unnecessarily.
Discussing whether he thinks Piastri is in a better position to challenge for a title this year, Peter Windsor has highlighted why he thinks he has now found the ‘sweet spot’ when speaking on his YouTube channel.
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Piastri outclassed Norris in China, where the British driver simply could not hook up a lap on the circuit known for high tyre attrition.
Windsor believes Piastri’s ability to coax more life out of the Pirelli tyres might give him the edge over Norris as the long season progresses.
“Oscar has now found his sweet spot and can take it to Lando everywhere,” said Windsor.
“For me it was a weekend where Lando didn’t get it right, he had a very fractious Friday and Saturday. Then on Sunday, he drove well with the car he had, but he was beaten.”
McLaren has not ruled out team orders for 2025 season
McLaren has already used team orders in Melbourne, although this was to ensure it could make a strategic decision to preserve its one-two in the running order.
The team has yet to face a scenario early in the season where either driver is slower than the other, but that might become more critical later in the season.
Martin Brundle expects team orders to be a ‘season-long’ issue at McLaren, given how close Norris and Piastri are on performance.
F1 fans felt the decision was bad from McLaren to hold both drivers, given there was a clear performance difference between Piastri and Norris that was not crucial to their strategy in the race.
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