Martin Brundle says it is “smart” that McLaren are preparing for the inevitable “meltdown” when Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have the big one on the track.

Pre-season predictions had rivals declaring McLaren’s MCL39 would be the car to beat, with Norris tipped to lead McLaren’s charge.

McLaren aware ‘papaya rules’ will become ‘papaya wrecks’

But five races into the F1 2025 championship, it is his team-mate Piastri who is ahead by 10 points in a McLaren 1-2 in the Drivers’ standings with Max Verstappen two points behind Norris.

After a mistake at the Australian Grand Prix, when one off-track moment led to a second bigger one, Piastri has been almost faultless this season as he’s bagged three Grands Prix victories to Norris’ one, with both drivers featuring on the podium four times.

The Australian driver was also runner-up in the Sprint in China when Norris compounded a poor qualifying with a mistake on the opening lap that cost him positions.

Piastri has been the more consistent of the two, his icy cool level-headedness paying off in results and points.

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👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-matesNorris told the UK’s Guardian. “I’d rather just be a good person and try to do well.

“I’ll do whatever I can to win a championship but maybe I won’t sacrifice in my life as much as some others, in terms of who I am as a person and have the ‘f**k you’ mentality people say you’ve got to have.

“I still believe I can be a world champion but doing it by being a nice guy.

Piastri agrees, saying: “There are certain characteristics that I think you do need [to win a title]. Obviously being fast is the most important one. But there are certain traits that you need.

“But I think, as Lando said, that doesn’t mean you need to be a bad person. You need to be tough on track. But there’s a lot of different ways you can go about it.”

However, even their team CEO Zak Brown reckons it’s only a matter of time before they have the big one on the track, the one that could define the championship fight.

He is, however, hoping that when it does happen, it’s nothing more than a “racing incident”.

“I think it’s definitely a matter of when, rather than if,” said the American.

“You have two racing drivers, whether in the same team or different team, that are next to each other for 24 races, someone’s going to lock a brake…

“So I’m kind of looking forward to getting it over with because I don’t think it’s going to be anywhere near as exciting as everybody thinks.

“I think it will be a racing incident when that day comes. I think it’s inevitable.

“They’re two great characters. Neither of them are hotheads, so we’re not worried about it, and to a certain extent, kind of looking forward to just getting it out of the way.”

Former F1 driver Brundle has applauded that way of thinking as he too reckons that while Piastri and Norris have yet to clash on the track, it will happen.

And that McLaren are already preparing for that day, means it hopefully will not degenerate into all-out war between the two sides of the McLaren garage.

“It’s incredibly smart what they are doing,” Brundle told Sky F1.

“What Zak is saying there is that ‘papaya rules’ will become ‘papaya wrecks’ at some point.

“[He’s saying] ‘we’ve got two incredibly fast drivers with a potential championship-winning car and it’s going to get rough at some point’.

“What that is doing is managing down so the team doesn’t go into meltdown, the drivers, the drivers’ entourages, and indeed the media.

“What he’s saying is ‘we know it’s going to happen, we’ll manage it when it does turn up, but don’t all overreact to it’.”

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